2 Kings 19:20-34

Contemporary English Version

The Lord's Answer to Hezekiah

(Isaiah 37.21-35)

²⁰Isaiah went to Hezekiah and told him that the Lord God of Israel had said:

Hezekiah, I heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria. ²¹Now this is what I say to that king:

The people of Jerusalem
hate and make fun of you;
they laugh
behind your back.

²²Sennacherib, you cursed,
shouted, and sneered at me,
    the holy God of Israel.
²³You let your officials
    insult me, the Lord.
And this is how you
    bragged about yourself:
“I led my chariots
to the highest heights
    of Lebanon's mountains.
I went deep into its forest,
cutting down the best cedar
    and cypress trees.
²⁴I dried up every stream
    in the land of Egypt,
and I drank water
    from wells I had dug.”

²⁵Sennacherib, now listen
    to me, the Lord.
I planned all this long ago.
And you don't even realize
    that I alone am the one
who decided that you
    would do these things.
I let you make ruins
    of fortified cities.
²⁶Their people became weak,
    terribly confused.
They were like wild flowers
or tender young grass
    growing on a flat roof,
scorched before it matures.^[a]

²⁷I know all about you,
even how fiercely angry
    you are with me.
²⁸I have seen your pride
and the tremendous hatred
    you have for me.
Now I will put a hook
in your nose,
    a bit in your mouth,^[b]
then I will send you back
    to where you came from.

²⁹Hezekiah, I will tell you what's going to happen. This year you will eat crops that grow on their own, and the next year you will eat whatever springs up where those crops grew. But the third year you will plant grain and vineyards, and you will eat what you harvest. ³⁰Those who survive in Judah will be like a vine that puts down deep roots and bears fruit. ³¹I, the Lord All-Powerful, will see to it that some who live in Jerusalem will survive.

³²I promise that the king of Assyria won't get into Jerusalem, or shoot an arrow into the city, or even surround it and prepare to attack. ³³As surely as I am the Lord, he will return by the way he came and will never enter Jerusalem. ³⁴I will protect it for myself and for my servant David.

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Footnotes

19.26 tender young grass … matures: Many of the houses had roofs made of packed earth. Grass would sometimes grow out of the roof, but would die quickly because of the sun and hot winds.
19.28 I will put … your mouth: This is how the Assyrians treated their prisoners, and now the Lord will treat Sennacherib the same way.