24. I have dug wells,have drunk waters in foreign lands.With my own feet, I dried upall of Egypt’s streams.’
25. Haven’t you heard?I set this up long ago;I planned it in the distant past!Now I have made it happen,making fortified citiescollapse into piles of rubble.
26. Their citizens have lost their power.They are frightened and ashamed.They’ve become like plants in a field,tender green shoots,the grass on rooftops,burned up before it matures.
27. I know where you live,how you go out and come in,and how you rage against me.
28. And because you rage against meand because your pride has reached my ears,I will put my hook in your nose,and my bit in your mouth.I will make you go backthe same way you came.
29. “Now this will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows by itself. Next year you will eat what grows from that. But in the third year, sow seed and harvest it; plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30. The survivors of the house of Judah who have escaped will take root below and bear fruit above.