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  and against whom have you raised up your voice and lifted your eyes upward?

To the holy one of Israel!

• 24 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[fn]
  • the choicest of its junipers.
• And I came to the height of its limit,
  • the forest of its orchard.[fn]
  • 25  and I caused all the streams of Egypt to dry up by the sole of my feet.”
  • 26 [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 are[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[fn] the standing grain.
  • 28  and your coming in, and your raging[fn] me.
  • 29 [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 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  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.’ ”