while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded; they have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown — the oracle describes the conquered inhabitants as weak, frightened, and withering like plants without water. The image of grass on housetops (עֵשֶׂב־גַּגּוֹת, *esev-gagot*), which dies quickly without soil, represents the futility and transience of human power without divine support. This description applies metaphorically to Sennacherib and his forces: they appear powerful but are actually fragile as grass.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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