The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: z‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, aI have heard.’ 21 This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:

‘The virgin, bthe daughter of Zion,

Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;

The daughter of Jerusalem

cHas shaken her head behind your back!

22 ‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?

Against whom have you raised your voice,

And lifted up your eyes on high?

Against dthe Holy One of Israel.

23 eBy your messengers you have reproached the Lord,

And said: f“By the multitude of my chariots

I have come up to the height of the mountains,

To the limits of Lebanon;

I will cut down its tall cedars

And its choice cypress trees;

I will enter the extremity of its borders,

To its fruitful forest.

24 I have dug and drunk strange water,

And with the soles of my feet I have gdried up

All the brooks of defense.”

25 ‘Did you not hear long ago

How hI made it,

From ancient times that I formed it?

Now I have brought it to pass,

That iyou should be

For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

26 Therefore their inhabitants had little power;

They were dismayed and confounded;

They were as the grass of the field

And the green herb,

As jthe grass on the housetops

And grain blighted before it is grown.

27 ‘But kI know your dwelling place,

Your going out and your coming in,

And your rage against Me.

28 Because your rage against Me and your tumult

Have come up to My ears,

Therefore lI will put My hook in your nose

And My bridle in your lips,

And I will turn you back

mBy the way which you came.

29 ‘This shall be a nsign to you:

You shall eat this year such as grows 2of itself,

And in the second year what springs from the same;

Also in the third year sow and reap,

Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

30 oAnd the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah

Shall again take root downward,

And bear fruit upward.

31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,

And those who escape from Mount Zion.

pThe zeal of the Lord 3of hosts will do this.’

32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:

‘He shall qnot come into this city,

Nor shoot an arrow there,

Nor come before it with shield,

Nor build a siege mound against it.

33 By the way that he came,

By the same shall he return;

And he shall not come into this city,’

Says the Lord.

34 ‘For rI will sdefend this city, to save it

For My own sake and tfor My servant David’s sake.’ ”