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26 Sennacherib, now listen
    to me, the Lord.
I planned all of this long ago.
And you don't even know
    that I alone am the one
who decided that you
    would do these things.
I let you make ruins
    of fortified cities.
27 Their people became weak,
    terribly confused.
They were like wild flowers
or like tender young grass
    growing on a flat roof
or like a field of grain
    before it matures.[a]

28 I know all about you,
even how fiercely angry
    you are with me.

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Footnotes

  1. 37.27 tender young grass … matures: The Standard Hebrew Text; the Dead Sea Scrolls and some Hebrew manuscripts “tender young grass, growing on a flat roof and scorched by the heat.” Many of the houses had roofs made of packed earth. Grass would sometimes grow on the roof, but would die quickly because of the sun and hot winds.

26 “Have you not heard?
    Long ago I ordained(A) it.
In days of old I planned(B) it;
    now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
    into piles of stone.(C)
27 Their people, drained of power,
    are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
    like tender green shoots,
like grass(D) sprouting on the roof,(E)
    scorched[a] before it grows up.

28 “But I know where you are
    and when you come and go(F)
    and how you rage(G) against me.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 37:27 Some manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scrolls and some Septuagint manuscripts (see also 2 Kings 19:26); most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text roof / and terraced fields