Isaiah 37:21-35

Common English Bible

²¹Then Isaiah, Amoz’s son, sent a message to Hezekiah: The Lord God of Israel says this: Since you prayed to me about Assyria’s King Sennacherib, ²²this 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.
²³Whom did you insult and ridicule?
    Against whom did you raise your voice
        and look on with disdain?
    It was against the holy one of Israel!
²⁴With your servants, you’ve insulted the Lord;
    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.
²⁵I have dug wells,
    have drunk water in foreign lands.^[a]
With my own feet, I dried up all of Egypt’s streams.”
²⁶Haven’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.
²⁷Their citizens have lost their power;
    they are frightened and dismayed.
They’ve become like plants in a field,
    tender green shoots,
    the grass on rooftops,
        blasted by the east wind.
²⁸I know where you are,
    how you go out and come in,
    and how you rage against me.
²⁹Because 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.

³⁰Now 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, plant seed and harvest it; plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ³¹The survivors of Judah’s family who have escaped will put down roots and bear fruit above. ³²Those 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 will do this.

³³Therefore, the Lord says this about Assyria’s king: He won’t enter this city. He won’t shoot a single arrow here. He won’t come near the city with a shield. He won’t build a ramp to besiege it. ³⁴He’ll go back by the same way he came. He won’t enter this city, declares the Lord. ³⁵I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.

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