And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.
When the king heard what the woman said, he tore his clothes in distress. As he walked along the city wall, the people could see that underneath his royal robes, he was wearing rough sackcloth against his skin.
The king was so devastated by the woman's story that he tore his clothes in grief, revealing he had already been wearing sackcloth as a sign of deep mourning and repentance.
📚 Historical Context
This occurs during the siege of Samaria by the Syrian army, when the city was experiencing severe famine. A woman had just told the king how desperate people had become - even resorting to cannibalism to survive. The king's sackcloth showed he had already been privately mourning and possibly repenting over the terrible conditions his people were enduring.
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