2 Kings 19:20-34
Complete Jewish Bible
20 Then Yesha‘yahu the son of Amotz sent this message to Hizkiyahu: “Adonai the God of Isra’el says: ‘You prayed to me against Sancheriv king of Ashur, and I have heard you.’ 21 Here is Adonai’s answer concerning him:
‘The virgin daughter of Tziyon
despises you; she laughs you to scorn.
The daughter of Yerushalayim
shakes her head at you.
22 Whom have you taunted and insulted?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and haughtily lifted your eyes?
The Holy One of Isra’el!
23 “‘Through your messengers you taunted Adonai.
You said, “With my many chariots
I have ascended the mountain heights
even in the far reaches of the L’vanon.
I cut down its tall cedars
and its best cypresses.
I reached its remotest corners
and its best forests.
24 I dug [wells] in foreign lands,
and I drank the water.
The soles of my [soldiers’] feet
dried up all the rivers of Egypt.”
25 “‘Haven’t you heard? Long ago I made it;
in antiquity I produced it;
and now I am making it happen:
you are turning fortified cities
into heaps of ruins;
26 while their inhabitants, shorn of power,
are disheartened and ashamed,
weak as grass, frail as plants,
like grass on the rooftops
or grain scorched by the east wind.
27 “‘But I know when you sit, when you leave,
when you enter — and when you rage against me.
28 And because of your rage against me,
because of your pride that has reached my ears,
I am putting my hook in your nose
and my bridle on your lips;
and I will make you return
by the way on which you came.
29 “‘This will be the sign for you: this year, you will eat the grain that grows of itself; the second year, you will eat what grows from that; but in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 “‘Meanwhile, the remnant
of the house of Y’hudah that has escaped
will again take root downward
and bear fruit upward;
31 for a remnant will go out from Yerushalayim,
those escaping will go out from Mount Tziyon.
The zeal of Adonai-Tzva’ot
will accomplish this.’
32 “Therefore this is what Adonai says concerning the king of Ashur:
‘He will not come to this city
or even shoot an arrow there;
he will not confront it with a shield
or erect earthworks against it.
33 By the way he came he will return;
he will not come to this city,’
says Adonai. 34 ‘For I will defend this city and save it, both for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’”
Read full chapterCopyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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