In verses 26-29 Yahweh responds to Sennacherib. The third example below makes this clear by beginning with “You, Sennacherib.” Yahweh addresses the Assyrian king, but his words are actually meant to comfort Hezekiah. This way of speaking indirectly to one person by addressing someone else is common in the prophetic messages to foreign nations (see chapters 13–23). Yahweh assures Hezekiah that he is in control of events. An important element in the theology of Isaiah is the view of Yahweh as the God of human history. He has a plan and purpose for Judah and the other nations.

Have you not heard that I determined it long ago?: Yahweh asks this rhetorical question, stating strongly that he has had a plan and that the plan was made in the distant past (compare 40.21, 28). The Hebrew verb rendered determined comes from a root meaning “to do/make.” It is parallel to the verb planned in the next line. The Hebrew verb form here is perfect, so it points to the certainty of an action that has already been completed. The pronoun it (Good News Translation “all this”) refers back to the expansion of the Assyrian Empire, mentioned by Sennacherib in the previous verses.

I planned from days of old: This line is not only parallel with the previous line, but it is also grammatically linked to it since the rhetorical question ends here in Hebrew. The first three lines are literally “Have you not heard that I determined … that I planned … old?” However, many translations place the question mark after the verb heard and then present the following two parallel lines independently; for example, New International Version has: “Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it” (similarly Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible). Translators may present these three lines in the most appropriate way for their language (see the examples below).

What now I bring to pass: This line is an emphatic independent clause in Hebrew. New International Version expresses it better with “now I have brought it to pass.” Yahweh is saying that all Sennacherib’s achievements were part of a divine plan, so the emperor has no cause to boast. RSV/NRSV and New Jerusalem Bible use the present tense here to refer to something that is happening or about to happen. The perfect form of the Hebrew verb for bring to pass can carry that sense but with the added stress on the certainty of the event. Good News Translation, New International Version, New American Bible, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh use the perfect tense, which is better here.

That you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins is literally “and you were to devastate heaps of ruins [or, rubble] cities fortified.” This means that Sennacherib reduced fortified cities into heaps of ruins (see 36.1). Good News Translation says “I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble,” since divine activity is implied here. Sennacherib destroyed the cities, but Yahweh is the one who made it possible. As in the previous line, the verb for “devastate” is better rendered in a past tense (so Good News Translation). For fortified cities, see 36.1; for heaps of ruins, see 25.2.

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• “Haven’t you heard?
I, the LORD, decided it long ago,
I planned it in days past.
Now I am bringing it about,
that you have reduced fortified towns to heaps of rubble.

• “Haven’t you heard that I, Yahweh, decided it long ago,
that I planned it in days past?
Now it has happened.
You have made fortified towns into heaps of ruins.

• “You, Sennacherib, will surely have heard,
that long ago I, the LORD, decided these things,
in days past I planned it [all].
And now it has occurred,
namely, that you have made fortified towns into heaps of rubble.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .