2 Kings 19:21–34

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.’

²⁹“This will be the sign^k for you, Hezekiah:

“This year you will eat what grows by itself,^l

and the second year what springs from that.

But in the third year sow and reap,

plant vineyards^m and eat their fruit.

³⁰Once more a remnantⁿ of the kingdom of Judah

will take root^o below and bear fruit above.

³¹For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,^p

and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.^q

“The zeal^r of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

³²“Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:

“ ‘He will not enter this city

or shoot an arrow here.

He will not come before it with shield

or build a siege ramp against it.

³³By the way that he came he will return;^s

he will not enter this city,

declares the Lord.

³⁴I will defend^t this city and save it,

for my sake and for the sake of David^u my servant.’ ”