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21 [a]This is the word the Lord has spoken concerning him:

She despises you, laughs you to scorn,
    the virgin daughter Zion!
Behind you she wags her head,
    daughter Jerusalem.
22 Whom have you insulted and blasphemed,
    at whom have you raised your voice
And lifted up your eyes on high?
    At the Holy One of Israel!
23 Through the mouths of your messengers
    you insulted the Lord when you said,
‘With my many chariots I went up
    to the tops of the peaks,
    to the recesses of Lebanon,
To cut down its lofty cedars,
    its choice cypresses;
I reached to the farthest shelter,
    the forest ranges.
24 I myself dug wells
    and drank foreign waters,
Drying up all the rivers of Egypt
    beneath the soles of my feet.’

25 “Have you not heard?
    A long time ago I prepared it,
    from days of old I planned it.
Now I have brought it about:
You are here to reduce
    fortified cities to heaps of ruins,
26 Their people powerless,
    dismayed and distraught.
They are plants of the field,
    green growth,
    thatch on the rooftops,
Grain scorched by the east wind.
27 I know when you stand or sit,
    when you come or go(A)
    and how you rage against me.
28 Because you rage against me,
    and your smugness has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,
And make you leave by the way you came.

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Footnotes

  1. 19:21–31 Verses 21–28 are addressed to Sennacherib, vv. 29–31 to Judah.

21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against(A) him:

“‘Virgin Daughter(B) Zion
    despises(C) you and mocks(D) you.
Daughter Jerusalem
    tosses her head(E) as you flee.
22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?(F)
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
    Against the Holy One(G) of Israel!
23 By your messengers
    you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,(H)
    “With my many chariots(I)
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
    the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down(J) its tallest cedars,
    the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest parts,
    the finest of its forests.
24 I have dug wells in foreign lands
    and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
    I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

25 “‘Have you not heard?(K)
    Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned(L) it;
    now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
    into piles of stone.(M)
26 Their people, drained of power,(N)
    are dismayed(O) and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
    like tender green shoots,(P)
like grass sprouting on the roof,
    scorched(Q) before it grows up.

27 “‘But I know(R) where you are
    and when you come and go
    and how you rage against me.
28 Because you rage against me
    and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook(S) in your nose
    and my bit(T) in your mouth,
and I will make you return(U)
    by the way you came.’

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