GOD’S ANSWER THROUGH ISAIAH

21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Because you prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria, 22 this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:

Virgin Daughter Zionac

despises you and scorns you;

Daughter Jerusalem shakes her headad

behind your back.

23 Who is it you have mockedae and blasphemed?

Against whom have you raised your voice

and lifted your eyes in pride?af

Against the Holy One of Israel!ag

24 You have mocked the Lord through your servants.

You have said, “With my many chariotsah

I have gone up to the heights of the mountains,

to the far recesses of Lebanon.

I cut down its tallest cedars,

its choice cypress trees.

I came to its distant heights,

its densest forest.

25 I dug wells and drank water in foreign lands.*

I dried up all the streams of Egypt

with the soles of my feet.”ai

26 Have you not heard?aj

I designed it long ago;

I planned it in days gone by.ak

I have now brought it to pass,

and you have crushed fortified citiesal

into piles of rubble.

27 Their inhabitants have become powerless,

dismayed, and ashamed.

They are plants of the field,

tender grass,

grass on the rooftops,

blasted by the east wind.A

28 But I know your sitting down,

your going out and your coming in,a

and your raging against me.

29 Because your raging against me

and your arrogance have reached my ears,b

I will put my hook in your nosec

and my bit in your mouth;d

I will make you go back

the way you came.

30 “ ‘This will be the sign for you:e This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take rootf downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For a remnantg will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.’h

33 “Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

He will not enter this city,

shoot an arrow here,

come before it with a shield,

or build up a siege ramp against it.

34 He will go back

the way he came,

and he will not enter this city.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

35 I will defend this city and rescue it

for my sakei

and for the sake of my servant David.”j