he hand of the
messengers, and had read it, he went up to the house of the Lord, and
spread it before the Lord,

19:15. And he prayed in his sight, saying: O Lord God of Israel, who
sittest upon the cherubims, thou alone art the God of all the kings of
the earth: thou madest heaven and earth:

19:16. Incline thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, thy eyes and see: and
hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to upbraid unto us the
living God.

19:17. Of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have destroyed
nations, and the lands of them all.

19:18. And they have cast their gods into the fire: for they were not
gods, but the work of men's hands, of wood and stone, and they destroyed
them.

19:19. 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, the only God.

19:20. And Isaias, the son of Amos, sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith
the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard the prayer thou hast made to
me concerning Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians.

19:21. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken of him: The virgin,
the daughter of Sion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the
daughtor of Jerusalem hath wagged her head behind thy back.

19:22. Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed? against
whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high?
against the holy one of Israel.

19:23. By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord, and
hast said: With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the
height of the mountains, to the top of Libanus, and have cut down its
tall cedars, and its choice fir trees. And I have entered into the
furthest parts thereof, and the forest of its Carmel.

Carmel... A pleasant fruitful hill in the forest. These expressions are
figurative, signifying under the names of mountains and forests, the
kings and provinces whom the Assyrians had triumphed over.

19:24. I have cut down, and I have drunk strange waters, and have dried
up with the soles of my feet all the shut up waters.

19:25. Hast thou not heard what I have done from the beginning? from the
days of old I have formed it, and now I have brought it to effect: that
fenced cities of fighting men should be turned to heaps of ruins:

I have formed it, etc... All thy exploits, in which thou takest pride,
are no more than what I have decreed; and are not to be ascribed to thy
wisdom or stren