2 Kings 19:14-28

14Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the house (temple) of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

15Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim [of the ark in the temple], You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth.

16O Lord, bend down Your ear and hear; Lord, open Your eyes and see; hear the [taunting] words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to taunt and defy the living God.

17It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have devastated the nations and their lands

18and have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not [real] gods but [only] the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they [could destroy them and] have destroyed them.

19Now, O Lord our God, please, save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know [without any doubt] that You alone, O Lord, are God.”

20Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘I have heard your prayer to Me regarding Sennacherib king of Assyria.’

21This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion Has despised you and mocked you; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind you!

22Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!

23Through your messengers you have taunted and defied the Lord, And have said [boastfully], “With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; I cut down its tall cedar trees and its choicest cypress trees. I entered its most distant lodging, its densest forest.

24I dug wells and drank foreign waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of [the Lower Nile of] Egypt.”

25‘Have you not heard [asks the God of Israel]? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you [king of Assyria] should [be My instrument to] turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

26Therefore their inhabitants were powerless, They were shattered [in spirit] and put to shame; They were like plants of the field, the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.

27But I [the Lord] know your sitting down [O Sennacherib], Your going out, your coming in, And your raging against Me.

28Because of your raging against Me, And because your arrogance and complacency have come up to My ears, I will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back [to Assyria] by the way that you came.