Isaiah 37:21-35 - God's Answer

21 Then Amoz's son Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says, to whom you prayed concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 22 This is the message that the LORD has spoken in opposition to him: ""The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem she tosses her head behind you as you flee. 23 Whom have you insulted and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! 24 By your messengers you have insulted the LORD, and you have said, "With my many chariots I have climbed the heights of mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines; I reached its remotest heights, the most verdant of its forests. 25 I myself dug wells and drank foreign waters; with the soles of my feet I dried up all the streams of Egypt."

26 ""Didn't you hear how in the distant past I decided to do it, how I planned from days of old? Now I've made it happen that fortified cities become devastated, besieged heaps. 27 Their inhabitants are devoid of power, and are terrified and put to shame. They've become like plants in the field, like green shoots, like grass on rooftops, scorched by the east wind.

28 ""I know when you rise up and when you sit down, your comings and goings and how you've become enraged at me. 29 Your insolence has reached my ears, so I'll put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I'll make you turn back on the road by which you came.

30 "And this will be your sign, Hezekiah: Eat this year what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 Then the ones belonging to the house of Judah who have escaped will gather, and those who are found will take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For a remnant will come out of Zion, and a band of survivors from Jerusalem. The zeal of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will accomplish this.

33 "Therefore this what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: "He won't enter this city, build up a siege ramp against it, shoot an arrow here, or threaten it with a shield. 34 By the same way that he came, he will return; he won't enter this city,' declares the LORD,

35 "because I will defend this city and deliver it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David!'"


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