In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, ¹  King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! ¹ 

Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.” ¹ 

“Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. ¹  You delivered me ²  from the pit of oblivion. ³  For you removed all my sins from your sight. ⁴ 

Isaiah ¹  asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.”

A voice says, “Cry out!” Another asks, ¹  “What should I cry out?” The first voice responds: ²  “All people are like grass, ³  and all their promises ⁴  are like the flowers in the field.

All nations gather together, the peoples assemble. Who among them announced this? Who predicted earlier events for us? ¹  Let them produce their witnesses to testify they were right; let them listen and affirm, ‘It is true.’

Look, all his associates ¹  will be put to shame; the craftsmen are mere humans. ²  Let them all assemble and take their stand! They will panic and be put to shame.

This is what the Lord, your protector, ¹  says, the one who formed you in the womb: “I am the Lord, who made everything, who alone stretched out the sky, who fashioned the earth all by myself, ² 

I am ¹  the one who forms light and creates darkness; ²  the one who brings about peace and creates calamity. ³  I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.

I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. ¹  Then all humankind ²  will recognize that I am the Lord, your deliverer, your protector, ³  the powerful ruler of Jacob.” ⁴ 

Your children faint; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a snare. They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger, by the battle cry of your God. ¹ 

For your husband is the one who made you – the Lord who commands armies is his name. He is your protector, ¹  the Holy One of Israel. ²  He is called “God of the entire earth.”

The people who do this will be blessed, ¹  the people who commit themselves to obedience, ²  who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it, who refrain from doing anything that is wrong. ³ 

They are unfamiliar with peace; their deeds are unjust. ¹  They use deceitful methods, and whoever deals with them is unfamiliar with peace. ² 

All the sheep of Kedar will be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth will be available to you as sacrifices. ¹  They will go up on my altar acceptably, ²  and I will bestow honor on my majestic temple.

The children of your oppressors will come bowing to you; all who treated you with disrespect will bow down at your feet. They will call you, ‘The City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ ¹ 

Their descendants will be known among the nations, their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will recognize that the Lord has blessed them.” ¹ 

For just as the ground produces its crops and a garden yields its produce, so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance ¹  to grow, and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations. ² 

I ¹  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they should keep praying all day and all night. ²  You who pray to ³  the Lord, don’t be silent!