Hezekiah thus expressed his distress at the prospects of a terrible siege facing Jerusalem. At any moment Jerusalem might be expected to bear the full brunt of Assyrian attack. The words of Sennacherib’s envoys were not idle threats. Reliefs from the palaces of Nineveh and Khorsabad reveal the terrible cruelties of Assyria against places taken by siege. Unspeakable horrors were ahead if the siege of Jerusalem should begin in earnest. In his deep distress the king clothed himself in sackcloth and made his way to the Temple to place the matter before the Lord.