2 Kings 19:8
So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
The verse belongs to the history of the remaining kingdom of Judah after the ten tribes had been swept away. It tells of Hezekiah's trouble with the Assyrian king Sennacherib in his campaign against Judah, his invasion of Palestine, and his siege of Jerusalem. It records that Rab-shakeh, Sennacherib's commander, returned and found the Assyrian king warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. This places Sennacherib and his forces away from Jerusalem during the events that followed.
The account containing the verse has a verbal difference from the parallel account in Isaiah 37. Sennacherib's invasion is also recorded on his own cylinder, which confirms the biblical account, though it does not record the loss of 185,000 soldiers and does mention a misfortune in the camp. The verse is part of the account in which God sent an angel to fight for Israel without human help, killing 185,000 Assyrians in one night. In that deliverance God overthrew the king of Assyria and all his host, showing that the victory came from God rather than from Israel's own strength, talent, education, wealth, or human favor.
The chapter shows that God is a friend to His people in trouble, to whom they can bring their troubles in prayer. Earnest, agonizing pleading with God, including the prayers of Hezekiah and two faithful men of God, preceded the turning back and destruction of Sennacherib's mighty army. God answered Hezekiah's prayer and overthrew that host in answer to prayer, with the victory gained in the audience chamber with God when prayer lays hold upon the mighty arm of power.
Because the Assyrian army was with its king at Libnah rather than near Jerusalem when the angel slew the 185,000 men, the account does not support identifying the destruction described in Isaiah 30:33 with the destruction of that army. The same victory in the audience chamber with God will be true for God's people in the last days. More troublous times than any in past history are near, and great victories in the closing of the work will require faith in God's promises that can walk by faith when no human help is nigh and there are only the promises by which to walk.