God’s Answer

21 And Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to me ⌊concerning⌋[fn] Sennacherib, king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him:

• She shows contempt for you; she derides you, virgin daughter of Zion;
  • she shakes her head behind you, daughter of Jerusalem.
• 23 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed,
  • and against whom have you raised up your voice and lifted your eyes upward?

To the holy one of Israel!

• 24 By the hand of your servants you have taunted the Lord,
  • and you have said, “With my many chariots,[fn]
• I myself have gone up the height of the mountains,
  • to the remote areas of Lebanon.
• And I cut off its tall cedars ,[fn]
  • the choicest of its junipers.
• And I came to the height of its limit,
  • the forest of its orchard.[fn]
• 25 I myself dug and drank waters,
  • and I caused all the streams of Egypt to dry up by the sole of my feet.”
• 26 Have you not heard from a long time ago ?[fn] I have made it
  • from days of primeval time, and I formed it.
• Now I have brought it about,
  • and it is for fortified cities to collapse into heaps of destroyed stones.
• 27 And their inhabitants are weak ;[fn]
  • they are dismayed, and they are ashamed;
• they have become like plants[fn] of the field,
  • and like greens of grass,
• like grass on[fn] the roofs
  • and a cultivated field before[fn] the standing grain.
• 28 And I know your sitting down and your going out,
  • and your coming in, and your raging against[fn] me.
• 29 Because you were enraged against[fn] me,
  • and your noise[fn] has come up to[fn] my ears,
• I will put my hook in your nose
  • and my bridle on your lips,
• and I will turn you back
  • on the way by which you came.

30 And this shall be the sign for you: the eating of volunteer plants[fn] this[fn] year, and in the second year self-seeded plants,[fn] and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 And the remnant of the house of Judah that remain shall ⌊grow⌋[fn] roots[fn] downwards and make fruit upwards.

• 32 For a remnant shall go out from Jerusalem
  • and survivors[fn] from mountain Zion.

The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.’

33 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning[fn] the king of Assyria:

• ‘He shall not come to this city,
  • and he shall not shoot an arrow there,
• and he shall not meet it with a shield,
  • and he shall not heap a siege ramp up against her.
• 34 He shall return by the way that he came,
  • and he shall not come to this city,’

⌊declares⌋[fn] Yahweh.

35 ‘And I will defend this city, to save it for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant.’ ”