Isaiah 37:22–29

²²This is the message that the Lord speaks to him, 

‘My dear people in Zion despise you and laugh at you. 

My people in Jerusalem shake their heads behind your back. 

²³Whom are you defying and slandering? 

Against whom are you shouting? 

Who are you looking at so arrogantly? 

It is the Holy One of Israel! 

²⁴Through your servants you defy the Lord and say, 

“With my many chariots I’ll ride up the high mountains, 

up the slopes of Lebanon. 

I’ll cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypresses. 

I’ll come to its most distant heights 

and its most fertile forests. 

²⁵I’ll dig wells and drink water. 

I’ll dry up all the streams of Egypt 

with the trampling of my feet.” 

²⁶“ ‘Haven’t you heard? I did this long ago. 

I planned it in the distant past. 

Now I make it happen so that you will turn fortified cities 

into piles of rubble. 

²⁷Those who live in these cities are weak, discouraged, and ashamed. 

They will be like plants in the field, 

like fresh, green grass on the roofs, 

dried up by the east wind. 

²⁸I know when you ⸤get up⸥ and sit down, 

when you go out and come in, 

and how you rage against me. 

²⁹Since you rage against me and your boasting has reached my ears, 

I will put my hook in your nose 

and my bridle in your mouth. 

I will make you go back the way you came.