20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: “‘Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. 22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! 23 By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord. And you have said, “With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its junipers. I have reached its remotest parts, the finest of its forests. 24 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.” 25 “‘Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. 26 Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up. 27 “‘But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me. 28 Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.’ 29 “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 30 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. 31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. 32 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. 33 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord. 34 I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’”
Hezekiah’s prayer receives its answer through a prophecy of Isaiah. It begins, in verses 20 to 28, by focusing on Sennacherib’s blasphemy and pride which will bring about his downfall. In verse 21 we are told he will fall and be mocked by Jerusalem. Note how Jerusalem is portrayed as a young, weak and very vulnerable girl – but, in spite of this she mocks Sennacherib. Sennacherib dared to believe that his military successes were his own achievements when, in reality, they had been planned by the Lord for his purposes. Note that the Holy One of Israel is a typical term for God used by Isaiah in the Book of Isaiah. Assyria had simply been a tool of the Lord but now God’s judgment will fall on it. Sennacherib will return by the same road he came.
Then Isaiah turns to the aftermath of the Assyrian withdrawal from Judah. Things will not become perfect over night for recovery, after all that war, will be slow but the remnant in Jerusalem will manage to survive. They will do so because some crops will grow from seeds already in the ground. The people should not despair, though, because they will be cared for by God. By the third year, the agricultural cycle will return to normal.
In verse 32 the prophecy returns to Sennacherib. He will leave for Assyria before any fighting even begins. God will completely protect Jerusalem as Hezekiah asked. God will do this to show the lies in Sennacherib’s assertions about him but he will also do it because of the promise to David. Note that it is not because of Hezekiah’s virtues and great piety. He receives grace not because of his own merits but because of God’s promises.
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