2 Kings 6:30

30 When the king heard this, he rent his garments, and passed by upon the wall. And all the people saw the haircloth which he wore within next to his flesh.

2 Kings 6:30 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 6:30

And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the
woman, that he rent his clothes
At the horror of the fact reported, and through grief that his people were brought into such distress through famine:

and he passed by upon the wall;
returning to his palace:

and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth upon his flesh;
which, in token of humiliation for averting the calamities he was under, he had put there before, and now was seen through the rending of his clothes.

2 Kings 6:30 In-Context

28 This woman said to me: Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.

29 So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day: Give thy son, that we may eat him. And she hath hid her son.

30 When the king heard this, he rent his garments, and passed by upon the wall. And all the people saw the haircloth which he wore within next to his flesh.

31 And the king said: May God do so and so to me, and may he add more, if the head of Eliseus, the son of Saphat, shall stand on him this day.

32 But Eliseus sat in his house, and the ancients sat with him. So he sent a man before: and before that messenger came, he said to the ancients: Do you know that this son of a murderer hath sent to cut off my head? Look then when the messenger shall come, shut the door, and suffer him not to come in: for behold the sound of his master’s feet is behind him.