2 Kings 19:20-34

Common English Bible

²⁰Then Isaiah, Amoz’s son, sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says: I have heard your prayer about Assyria’s King Sennacherib. ²¹This is the message that the Lord has spoken against him:

The young woman, Daughter Zion, despises you and mocks you;
    Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head behind your back.
²²Whom did you insult and ridicule?
    Against whom did you raise your voice
        and pridefully lift your eyes?
    It was against the holy one of Israel!
²³You’ve insulted the Lord with your messengers;
    you said, ‘I, with my many chariots,
        have gone up to the highest mountains,
        to the farthest reaches of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
    the best of its pine trees.
I have reached its most remote lodging place,
    its best forest.
²⁴I have dug wells,
    have drunk waters in foreign lands.^[a]
With my own feet, I dried up
        all of Egypt’s streams.’
²⁵Haven’t you heard?
I set this up long ago;
        I planned it in the distant past!
Now I have made it happen,
    making fortified cities
        collapse into piles of rubble.
²⁶Their citizens have lost their power.
    They are frightened and ashamed.
They’ve become like plants in a field,
    tender green shoots,
    the grass on rooftops,
        burned up before it matures.
²⁷I know where you live,
    how you go out and come in,
        and how you rage against me.
²⁸And because you rage against me
    and because your pride has reached my ears,
        I will put my hook in your nose,
        and my bit in your mouth.
I will make you go back
    the same way you came.

²⁹“Now this will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows by itself. Next year you will eat what grows from that. But in the third year, sow seed and harvest it; plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ³⁰The survivors of the house of Judah who have escaped will take root below and bear fruit above. ³¹Those who remain will go out from Jerusalem, and those who survive will go out from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of heavenly forces^[b] will do this.

³²“Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Assyria’s king: He won’t enter this city. He won’t shoot a single arrow there. He won’t come near the city with a shield. He won’t build a ramp to besiege it. ³³He will go back by the same way he came. He won’t enter this city, declares the Lord. ³⁴I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

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