3. Isaiah, these are difficult and disgraceful times. Our nation is like a woman too weak to give birth, when it's time for her baby to be born.
4. Please pray for those of us who are left alive. The king of Assyria sent his army commander to insult the living God. Perhaps the Lord heard what he said and will do something, if you will pray.
5. When these leaders came to me,
6. I told them that the Lord had this message for Hezekiah:I am the Lord. Don't worry about the insulting things that have been said about me by these messengers from the king of Assyria.
7. I will upset him with rumours about what's happening in his own country. He will go back, and there I will make him die a violent death.
8. Meanwhile the commander of the Assyrian forces heard that his king had left the town of Lachish and was now attacking Libnah. So he went there.
9. About this same time, the king of Assyria learnt that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was on his way to attack him. Then the king of Assyria sent some messengers with this note for Hezekiah:
21-22. I went to Hezekiah and told him that the Lord God of Israel had said:Hezekiah, you prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria. Now this is what I say to that king:The people of Jerusalemhate and make fun of you;they laugh behind your back.
23. Sennacherib, you cursed,shouted, and sneered at me,the holy God of Israel.
24. You let your officialsinsult me, the Lord.And here is what youhave said about yourself,“I led my chariotsto the highest heightsof Lebanon's mountains.I went deep into its forest,cutting down the best cedarand cypress trees.
25. I dried up every streamin the land of Egypt,and I drank waterfrom wells I had dug.”
26. Sennacherib, now listento me, the Lord.I planned all this long ago.And you don't even knowthat I alone am the onewho decided that youwould do these things.I let you make ruinsof fortified cities.
27. Their people became weak,terribly confused.They were like wild flowersor like tender young grassgrowing on a flat roofor like a field of grainbefore it matures.
28. I know all about you,even how fiercely angryyou are with me.
29. I have seen your prideand the tremendous hatredyou have for me.Now I will put a hookin your nose,a bit in your mouth,then I will send you backto where you came from.
30. Hezekiah, I will tell you what's going to happen. This year you will eat crops that grow on their own, and the next year you will eat whatever springs up where those crops grew. But the third year, you will plant grain and vineyards, and you will eat what you harvest.