2 Kings 19:21–28

²¹This is the word that the Lord has spoken against^p him:

“ ‘Virgin Daughter^q Zion

despises^r you and mocks^s you.

Daughter Jerusalem

tosses her head^t as you flee.

²²Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?^u

Against whom have you raised your voice

and lifted your eyes in pride?

Against the Holy One^v of Israel!

²³By your messengers

you have ridiculed the Lord.

And you have said,^w

“With my many chariots^x

I have ascended the heights of the mountains,

the utmost heights of Lebanon.

I have cut down^y its tallest cedars,

the choicest of its junipers.

I have reached its remotest parts,

the finest of its forests.

²⁴I have dug wells in foreign lands

and drunk the water there.

With the soles of my feet

I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

²⁵“ ‘Have you not heard?^z

Long ago I ordained it.

In days of old I planned^a it;

now I have brought it to pass,

that you have turned fortified cities

into piles of stone.^b

²⁶Their people, drained of power,^c

are dismayed^d and put to shame.

They are like plants in the field,

like tender green shoots,^e

like grass sprouting on the roof,

scorched^f before it grows up.

²⁷“ ‘But I know^g where you are

and when you come and go

and how you rage against me.

²⁸Because you rage against me

and because your insolence has reached my ears,

I will put my hook^h in your nose

and my bitⁱ in your mouth,

and I will make you return^j

by the way you came.’