Isaiah predicted that the Assyrians would not conquer Jerusalem

20 Then Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelis belong, says: 'I have heard what you prayed to me about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. 21 This is what I say to him:

“The people of Jerusalem [MTY] despise you and make fun of you.

They wag/shake their heads to mock you while you flee from here.

22 Who do you think that you are despising and ridiculing?

Who do you think you were shouting at?

Who do you think you were looking at very proudly/arrogantly?

It was I, the holy God whom the Israelis worship.

23 The messengers that you sent made fun of me.

You said, 'With my many chariots I have gone to the highest mountains,

even to the highest mountains in Lebanon.

We have cut down its tallest cedar trees

and its nicest pine/cyprus trees.

We have been to the most distant/remote peaks

and to its dense forests.

24 We have dug wells in other countries and drank water from them.

And by marching through [MTY] the streams of Egypt,

we dried them all up [HYP]!” ’

25 ‘But I reply, “Have you never heard that long ago I determined that those things would happen?

I planned it long ago,

and now I have been causing it to happen.

I planned that your army would have the power to capture many cities that were surrounded by high walls,

and cause them to become piles of rubble.

26 The people who lived in those cities have no power,

and as a result they became dismayed and discouraged.

They are as frail as plants and grass in the fields,

as frail as grass that grows on the roofs of houses

and is scorched by the hot east wind.

27 “But I know everything about you.

I know when you are in your house and when you go outside;

I also know that you are ◄raging/speaking very angrily► against me.

28 So, because you have raged against me,

and because I have heard [MTY] you speak very proudly/arrogantly,

it will be as though I will put a hook in your nose

and an iron ◄bit/piece of metal► in your mouth in order that I can lead you where I want you to go,

and I will force you to return to your own country

on the same road on which you came here, without conquering Jerusalem.” '

29 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “This is what will happen to prove that I am telling the truth:

This year and next year you and your people will be able to harvest only ◄wild grain/grain that grows without having been planted►.

But the following year, you Israelis will be able to plant grain and harvest it, and to plant vineyards and eat the grapes that you harvest.

30 The people [MTY] in Judah who remain alive will prosper and have many children; they will be like plants whose roots go deep down into the ground and which produce much [MET].

31 There will be many people in Jerusalem [DOU] who will survive, because Yahweh, the commander of the armies of angels in heaven, wants [PRS] it to happen.

32 So this is what Yahweh, says about the king of Assyria:

‘His armies will not enter this city;

they will not even shoot any arrows into it!

His soldiers will not march outside the city gates carrying shields,

and they will not even build high mounds of dirt against the city walls

to enable them to attack the city.

33 Their king will return to his own country

on the same road on which he came here.

He will not enter this city!

That will happen because I, Yahweh have said it!

34 I will defend this city and prevent it from being destroyed.

I will do this for the sake of my own reputation and because of what I promised to King David, who served me well.' ”

35 That night, an angel from Yahweh went out to where the army of Assyria had put up their tents, and killed 185,000 of their soldiers! When the rest of their soldiers woke up the next morning, they saw that there were corpses everywhere! 36 Then King Sennacherib left and went home to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.

37 One day, when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords. Then they escaped and went to the Ararat region, northwest of Nineveh. And another of Sennacherib's sons, Esarhaddon, became the king of Assyria.