Isaiah Brings a Prophetic Response

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘What you have prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21 This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him:

She despises you, she scorns you,

the virgin daughter of Zion.

Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem

shakes her head.

22 Whom have you mocked and reviled?

And against whom have you have raised your voice

and have haughtily lifted your eyes?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

23 By the hand of your messengers you have mocked the Lord,

and you have said,

‘With my many chariots I have gone up

to the height of the mountains.

To the remote areas of Lebanon,

I have felled the tallest of its cedars,

the choicest of its cypresses.

I have entered the place of overnight lodging.

Even to the edge of forest of its fertile land.

24 I dug wells and I drank foreign water,

and I dried up with the sole of my steps

all the canals of Egypt.’

25 Have you not heard?

From long ago I have determined it,

from the days of old I have planned it,

and now I am bringing it to pass.

It shall be turned into a pile of rocks;

fortified cities are ruined.

26 Their inhabitants, short of hand, shall be dismayed;

and they shall be ashamed.

They have become green plants of the open field,

and tender grass,

green grass of the roof

and blight before the standing grain.

27 Your sitting, your going out, and your coming in I know,

and your raging against me.

28 Because you are raging against me,

and your arrogance has come up in my ears,

I will put my nose ring in your nose

and my bridle in your mouth.

And I will turn you back

on the way that you have come.

29 “ ‘This will be the sign for you: Eat the volunteer plants for the year, and in the second year, the volunteer plants that spring up from that. But in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 30 The remainder of the house of Judah that survives will again take root below and bear fruit above. 31 For from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and survivors from Mount Zion; the zeal of Yahweh will do this.

32 “ ‘Therefore thus says Yahweh to the king of Assyria, “He shall not come to this city, nor shall he shoot an arrow there, nor shall he bring a small shield near her, nor shall he cast a siege ramp against her. 33 By the way that he came to her he shall return; but to this city, he shall not come,” declares Yahweh. 34 And I will defend this city to save her for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’ ”