Isaiah 37:22-29

The poem on Sennacherib is in substance a Taunt-song; but in form an elegy, written in the measure characteristic of the qînâh. The first two lines (Isaiah 37:22) read:

She hath despised thee, hath mocked thee the virgin daughter of Zion;

Behind thee hath shaken the head the daughter of Jerusalem.

The prophet anticipates the ignominious retreat of the Assyrian king ("behind thee"), leaving Jerusalem still a "virgin" fortress. To "shake the head" is in the O.T. a gesture of contempt (Psalms 22:7; Jeremiah 18:16; Lamentations 2:15, &c.).