²¹ the Lord had said, “The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you. ²² Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel. ²³ You sent your messengers to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests. ²⁴ You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.

²⁵ “Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble. ²⁶ The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.^[a]

²⁷ “But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me. ²⁸ I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth, and take you back by the same road you came.”

²⁹ Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, “Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant your grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes. ³⁰ Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit. ³¹ There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the Lord is determined to make this happen.