Isaiah 37:21–35

God’s Answer

²¹And Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to me concerning^w Sennacherib, king of Assyria, ²²this is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him:

She shows contempt for you; she derides you, virgin daughter of Zion;

she shakes her head behind you, daughter of Jerusalem.

²³Whom have you taunted and blasphemed,

and against whom have you raised up your voice and lifted your eyes upward?

To the holy one of Israel!

²⁴By the hand of your servants you have taunted the Lord,

and you have said, “With my many chariots,^x

I myself have gone up the height of the mountains,

to the remote areas of Lebanon.

And I cut off its tall cedars,^y

the choicest of its junipers.

And I came to the height of its limit,

the forest of its orchard.^z

²⁵I myself dug and drank waters,

and I caused all the streams of Egypt to dry up by the sole of my feet.”

²⁶Have you not heard from a long time ago?^a I have made it

from days of primeval time, and I formed it.

Now I have brought it about,

and it is for fortified cities to collapse into heaps of destroyed stones.

²⁷And their inhabitants are weak;^b

they are dismayed, and they are ashamed;

they have become like plants^c of the field,

and like greens of grass,

like grass on^d the roofs

and a cultivated field before^e the standing grain.

²⁸And I know your sitting down and your going out,

and your coming in, and your raging against^f me.

²⁹Because you were enraged against^g me,

and your noise^h has come up toⁱ my ears,

I will put my hook in your nose

and my bridle on your lips,

and I will turn you back

on the way by which you came.

³⁰And this shall be the sign for you: the eating of volunteer plants^j this^k year, and in the second year self-seeded plants,^l and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹And the remnant of the house of Judah that remain shall grow^m rootsⁿ downwards and make fruit upwards.

³²For a remnant shall go out from Jerusalem

and survivors^o from mountain Zion.

The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.’

³³Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning^p the king of Assyria:

‘He shall not come to this city,

and he shall not shoot an arrow there,

and he shall not meet it with a shield,

and he shall not heap a siege ramp up against her.

³⁴He shall return by the way that he came,

and he shall not come to this city,’

declares^q Yahweh.

³⁵‘And I will defend this city, to save it for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant.’ ”