The royal palace will be left empty. The noisy city will be deserted. The fort and lookout tower will become a dry and empty desert forever. Donkeys will enjoy being there. Flocks will eat there.
Then the angel of the Lord went into the camp of the Assyrians. He put to death 185,000 soldiers there. The people of Jerusalem got up the next morning. They looked out and saw all the dead bodies.
They didn’t get thirsty when he led them through the deserts. He made water flow out of the rock for them. He broke the rock open, and water came out of it.
“ ‘The Lord and King says, “I myself will get a twig from the very top of a cedar tree and plant it. I will break off the highest twig. I will plant it on a very high mountain.
I will bring them out from among the nations. I will gather them together from other countries. I will bring them into their own land. There they will eat grass on the mountains and in the valleys. And they will eat in all the fields of Israel.
I will make them and the places surrounding my holy mountain of Zion a blessing. I will send down rain at the right time. There will be showers of blessing.
The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple. I saw water flowing east from under a temple gateway. The temple faced east. The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple. It was flowing south of the altar.
“At that time fresh wine will drip from the mountains. Milk will flow down from the hills. Water will run through all Judah’s valleys. A fountain will flow out of my temple. It will water the places where acacia trees grow.
All your forts are like fig trees that have their first ripe fruit on them. When the trees are shaken, the figs fall into the mouths of those who eat them.
The weapons I fight with are not the weapons the world uses. In fact, it is just the opposite. My weapons have the power of God to destroy the camps of the enemy.