26“Have you not heard?
         Long ago I did it,
         From ancient times I planned it.
         Now I have brought it to pass,
         That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

27“Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,
         They were dismayed and put to shame;
         They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb,
         As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.

28“But I know your sitting down
         And your going out and your coming in
         And your raging against Me.

29“Because of your raging against Me
         And because your arrogance has come up to My ears,
         Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
         And My bridle in your lips,
         And I will turn you back by the way which you came.

      30“Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31“The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32“For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”’

      33“Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, or throw up a siege ramp against it. 34‘By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the LORD. 35‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

Assyrians Destroyed

      36Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead. 37So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

NASB ©1995