Bible Verses About Assyria: Reproved for pride and blasphemy

Have the gods of the nations delivered them? No, my ancestors destroyed them - Gozan, Haran, Retzef and the people of 'Eden who were in Tel'asar.

Where is the king of Hamat? the king of Arpad? the king of the city of S'farvayim, of Hena and 'Ivah?'"

Hizkiyahu took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it. Then Hizkiyahu went up to the house of ADONAI and spread it out before ADONAI.

Hizkiyahu prayed as follows in the presence of ADONAI: "ADONAI God of Isra'el, who dwells above the k'ruvim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth.

Turn your ear, ADONAI, and hear! Open your eyes, ADONAI, and see! Hear the words that Sancheriv sent to taunt the living God.

It is true, ADONAI, that the kings of Ashur have laid waste the nations and their lands

and have thrown their gods into the fire. For those were non-gods, merely the product of people's hands, wood and stone; this is why they could destroy them.

Now therefore, ADONAI our God, please save us from his power - so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you are ADONAI, God - you only."

Then Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz sent this message to Hizkiyahu: "ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'You prayed to me against Sancheriv king of Ashur, and I have heard you.'

Here is ADONAI's answer concerning him: 'The virgin daughter of Tziyon despises you; she laughs you to scorn. The daughter of Yerushalayim shakes her head at you.

Whom have you taunted and insulted? Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? The Holy One of Isra'el!

"'Through your messengers you taunted Adonai. You said, "With my many chariots I have ascended the mountain heights even in the far reaches of the L'vanon. I cut down its tall cedars and its best cypresses. I reached its remotest corners and its best forests.

I dug [wells] in foreign lands, and I drank the water. The soles of my [soldiers'] feet dried up all the rivers of Egypt."

"'Haven't you heard? Long ago I made it; in antiquity I produced it; and now I am making it happen: you are turning fortified cities into heaps of ruins;

while their inhabitants, shorn of power, are disheartened and ashamed, weak as grass, frail as plants, like grass on the rooftops or grain scorched by the east wind.

"'But I know when you sit, when you leave, when you enter - and when you rage against me.

And because of your rage against me, because of your pride that has reached my ears, I am putting my hook in your nose and my bridle on your lips; and I will make you return by the way on which you came.

"'This will be the sign for you: this year, you will eat the grain that grows of itself; the second year, you will eat what grows from that; but in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

"'Meanwhile, the remnant of the house of Y'hudah that has escaped will again take root downward and bear fruit upward;

for a remnant will go out from Yerushalayim, those escaping will go out from Mount Tziyon. The zeal of ADONAI-Tzva'ot will accomplish this.'

"Therefore this is what ADONAI says concerning the king of Ashur: 'He will not come to this city or even shoot an arrow there; he will not confront it with a shield or erect earthworks against it.

By the way he came he will return; he will not come to this city,' says ADONAI.

'For I will defend this city and save it, both for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.'"

Then Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz sent this message to Hizkiyahu: "ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'You prayed to me against Sancheriv king of Ashur.'

Here is ADONAI's answer concerning him: "'The virgin daughter of Tziyon despises you; she laughs you to scorn. The daughter of Yerushalayim shakes her head at you.