Isaías 37:21

"Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word which Jehovah hath spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou defied and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. By thy servants hast thou defied the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof; and I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field; I have digged and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt."

This paragraph is only part of the message that Isaiah sent to Hezekiah, giving the answer of the Lord to Hezekiah's prayer. Note that the reason for God's favorable answer was based upon Hezekiah's earnest prayer against Sennacherib.

The whole substance of God's answer may be seen at once in the fact of the daughters of Zion and of Jerusalem shaking their heads and despising Sennacherib. The rest of the paragraph deals largely with God's acknowledgment of the arrogant and sinful ambition and boasting of the Assyrian invader.

Such expressions as "the virgin daughter of Zion," are not references to the moral excellence of the people. "They mean that the city, or cities, referred to have not been conquered, or raped, by a conqueror."[8]

The last verses here are a continuation of the boastful threats of Sennacherib. He brags about what he has done and will do! He will even dry up all the rivers of Egypt with the sole of his feet. What a terror he is to the people of all nations. There is an amazing amount of truth in what this beast of a heathen was saying. As a matter of fact, no other nation of human history ever surpassed the sadistic cruelty and ruthless passion for destruction that marked the ravages of Assyria. They were referred to throughout the world as "the breakers." The monuments they left behind show how they gloried in the suffering of their captives and the injustices heaped upon the helpless people by their wicked conquerors. It is amazing that God tolerated their existence as a world power as long as he did. Such merciless behavior on their part deserved the sentence that God executed upon them as foretold in the prophecy of Nahum.