^19:29⁵⁰ This will be your confirmation that I have spoken the truth:⁵¹ This year you will eat what grows wild,⁵² and next year⁵³ what grows on its own from that. But in the third year you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce.⁵⁴^19:30Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit.⁵⁵

^19:31For a remnant will leave Jerusalem;

survivors will come out of Mount Zion.

The intense devotion of the sovereign Lord⁵⁶ to his people⁵⁷ will accomplish this.

^19:32So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

“He will not enter this city,

nor will he shoot an arrow here.⁵⁸

He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors,⁵⁹

nor will he build siege works against it.

^19:33He will go back the way he came.

He will not enter this city,” says the Lord.

^19:34I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.’ ”⁶⁰

^19:35That very night the Lord’s messenger went out and killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When they⁶¹ got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses.⁶²

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Footnotes

50 At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 21–28) ends and the Lord again directly addresses Hezekiah and the people (see v. 20).
51 Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot), “sign,” is a future confirmation of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14–25.
52 This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.
53 Heb “and in the second year.”
54 The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 29b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity. See §34.4.c.
55 Heb “The remnant of the house of Judah that is left will add roots below and produce fruit above.”
56 Traditionally “the Lord of hosts.”
57 Heb “the zeal of the Lord.” In this context the Lord’s “zeal” refers to his intense devotion to and love for his people which prompts him to protect and restore them. The Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew and the ancient versions, has “the zeal of the LORD of hosts” rather than “the zeal of the LORD” (Kethib). The translation follows the Qere here.
58 Heb “there.”
59 Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.
60 Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”
61 This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.
62 Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies.”