Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Clothes rent - in grief and horror at the blasphemy (Matthew 26:65).
Remarks: The godly do not escape their share of the trials which abound in this life of probation. Even good King Hezekiah, of whom it is testified that "he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done," was threatened with destruction by the overwhelming hosts of Sennacherib. Trust in Egypt was the great weakness of which the Jewish nation was guilty at that time. But there was also a godly party, of whom the king was the leader, and who trusted in Yahweh, Rabshakeh well said of the former trust, that Egypt was but a broken reed to lean on. But of trust in Yahweh he tried to rob the godly, through misrepresentation of the pious act of their king in removing the unlawful high places and altars to God, and in insisting on a return to the law, which commanded that all should worship before the altar at Jerusalem (Isaiah 36:7).