16. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.
17. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
18. and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them.
19. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.”
20. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.’
21. This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:‘The virgin, the daughter of Zion,Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;The daughter of JerusalemHas 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 the Holy One of Israel.
23. By your messengers you have reproached the Lord,And said: “By the multitude of my chariotsI have come up to the height of the mountains,To the limits of Lebanon;I will cut down its tall cedarsAnd its choice cypress trees;I will enter the extremity of its borders,To its fruitful forest.
24. I have dug and drunk strange water,And with the soles of my feet I have dried upAll the brooks of defense.”
25. ‘Did you not hear long agoHow I made it,From ancient times that I formed it?Now I have brought it to pass,That you should beFor crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
26. Therefore their inhabitants had little power;They were dismayed and confounded;They were as the grass of the fieldAnd the green herb,As the grass on the housetopsAnd grain blighted before it is grown.
27. ‘But I know your dwelling place,Your going out and your coming in,And your rage against Me.
28. Because your rage against Me and your tumultHave come up to My ears,Therefore I will put My hook in your noseAnd My bridle in your lips,And I will turn you backBy the way which you came.