Isaiah 37:22–29

²²this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:

“Virgin Daughterⁿ Zion^o

despises and mocks you.

Daughter Jerusalem

tosses her head^p as you flee.

²³Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?^q

Against whom have you raised your voice^r

and lifted your eyes in pride?^s

Against the Holy One^t of Israel!

²⁴By your messengers

you have ridiculed the Lord.

And you have said,

‘With my many chariots^u

I have ascended the heights of the mountains,

the utmost heights^v of Lebanon.^w

I have cut down its tallest cedars,

the choicest of its junipers.^x

I have reached its remotest heights,

the finest of its forests.

²⁵I have dug wells in foreign lands^c

and drunk the water there.

With the soles of my feet

I have dried up^y all the streams of Egypt.^z’

²⁶“Have you not heard?

Long ago I ordained^a it.

In days of old I planned^b it;

now I have brought it to pass,

that you have turned fortified cities

into piles of stone.^c

²⁷Their people, drained of power,

are dismayed and put to shame.

They are like plants in the field,

like tender green shoots,

like grass^d sprouting on the roof,^e

scorched^d before it grows up.

²⁸“But I know where you are

and when you come and go^f

and how you rage^g against me.

²⁹Because you rage against me

and because your insolence^h has reached my ears,

I will put my hookⁱ in your nose^j

and my bit in your mouth,

and I will make you return

by the way you came.^k