17. Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent his messengers to blaspheme the living God.
18. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their countries
19. and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.
20. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only.
21. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:
22. This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him, Has he despised thee? Has he laughed thee to scorn O virgin daughter of Zion? Has he shaken his head behind thy back O daughter of Jerusalem?
23. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
24. By the hand of thy slaves thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots I shall come up to the height of the mountains to the sides of Lebanon, and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof and the choice fir trees thereof; and I will enter into the height of his border and the forest of his Carmel.
25. I have dug and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet shall I dry up all the rivers of sustenance.
26. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it and of ancient times that I have formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, that thou should be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps.
27. And their inhabitants, of little strength, dismayed and confounded shall be as the grass of the field and as the green shrub as the grass on the housetops, that before it comes to maturity it is dried up.