II Kings 19:21
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This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Jerusalem's great distress we read of in the foregoing chapter, and left it besieged, insulted, threatened, terrified, and just ready to be swallowed up by the Assyrian army. But in this chapter we have an account of its glorious deliverance, not by sword or bow, but by prayer and prophecy, and by the hand of an angel. I. Hezekiah, in great concern, sent to the prophet Isaiah, to desire his prayers (Kg2 19:1-5) and received from him an answer of peace (Kg2 19:6, Kg2 19:7). II. Sennacherib sent a letter to Hezekiah to fright him into a surrender (Kg2 19:8-13). III. Hezekiah thereupon, by a very solemn prayer, recommended his case to God, the righteous Judge, and begged help from him (Kg2 19:14-19). IV. God, by Isaiah, sent him a very comfortable message, assuring him of deliverance (Kg2 19:20-34). V. The army of the Assyrians was all cut off by an angel and Sennacherib himself slain by his own sons (Kg2 19:35-37). And so God glorified himself and saved his people.
Open source ↗19:21-28 The phrase virgin daughter is often used regarding civic identity (Isa 23:12; 37:22; 47:1; Jer 18:13). Here, the metaphor implies that as a young maiden is rescued from her attacker, so God will rescue Jerusalem. The Lord’s answer was delivered as a “taunt song,” a common literary form in the ancient Near East that rejoiced over an enemy’s humiliation (cp. Isa 14:3-20).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you?
You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.
I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads
All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.
So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.
And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city besieged.
that I may declare all Your praises— that within the gates of Daughter Zion I may rejoice in Your salvation.