2 Kings 19:21–28

²¹This 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.

^23eBy 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.

²⁴I 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.

²⁶Therefore 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.

²⁸Because 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.