27. The people in those cities were weak;they were frightened and put to shame.They were like grass in the field,like tender, young grass,like grass on the housetopthat is burned by the wind before it can grow.
28. “ ‘I know when you rest,when you come and go,and how you rage against me.
29. Because you rage against me,and because I have heard your proud words,I will put my hook in your noseand my bit in your mouth.Then I will force you to leave my countrythe same way you came.’
30. “Then the Lord said, ‘Hezekiah, I will give you this sign:This year you will eat the grain that grows wild,and the second year you will eat what grows wild from that.But in the third year, plant grain and harvest it.Plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31. Some of the people in the family of Judahwill escape.Like plants that take root,they will grow strong and have many children.
32. A few people will come out of Jerusalem alive;a few from Mount Zion will live.The strong love of the Lord All-Powerfulwill make this happen.’
33. “So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:‘He will not enter this cityor even shoot an arrow here.He will not fight against it with shieldsor build a ramp to attack the city walls.
34. He will return to his country the same way he came,and he will not enter this city,’says the Lord.
35. ‘I will defend and save this cityfor my sake and for David, my servant.’ ”
36. Then the angel of the Lord went out and killed one hundred eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up early the next morning, they saw all the dead bodies.
37. So Sennacherib king of Assyria left and went back to Nineveh and stayed there.
38. One day as Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. Then they escaped to the land of Ararat. So Sennacherib’s son Esarhaddon became king of Assyria.