Isaiah 22
1The “Valley of Vision” Pronouncement. What can have happened to youThat you have gone, all of you, up on the roofs,
2O you who were full of tumult,You clamorous town,You city so exultant?Your slain are not the slain of the swordNor the dead of battle.
3Your officers have all departed,They fled far away;Your survivors were all taken captive,Taken captive without their bows.
4That is why I say, “Let me be,I will weep bitterly.Press not to comfort meFor the ruin of my poor people.”
5For my Sovereign GOD of Hosts had a dayOf tumult and din and confusion—Kir raged in the Valley of Vision,And Shoa on the hill;
6While Elam bore the quiverIn troops of mounted men,And Kir bared the shield—
7And your choicest lowlandsWere filled with chariots and riders:They stormed at Judah’s gateway
8And pressed beyond its screen. You gave thought on that dayTo the arms in the Forest House,
9And you took note of the many breachesIn the City of David.And you collected the water of the Lower Pool;
10and you counted the houses of Jerusalem and pulled houses down to fortify the wall;
11and you constructed a basin between the two walls for the water of the old pool.But you gave no thought to the One who planned it,You took no note of the One who designed it long before.
12My Sovereign GOD of Hosts summoned on that dayTo weeping and lamenting,To tonsuring and girding with sackcloth.
13Instead, there was rejoicing and merriment,Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,Eating of meat and drinking of wine:“Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
14Then GOD of Hosts was revealed to my ears:“This iniquity shall never be forgiven youUntil you die,” said my Sovereign GOD of Hosts.
15Thus said my Sovereign GOD of Hosts: Go in to see that steward, that Shebna, in charge of the palace:
16What have you here, and whom have you here,That you have hewn out a tomb for yourself here?—O you who have hewn your tomb on high;O you who have hollowed out for yourself an abode in the cliff!
17GOD is about to shake youSeverely, fellow, and then wear you like a wrap.
18Indeed, [God] will wind you about as a headdress, a turban. Off to a broad land!There shall you die, and there shall be the chariots bearing your body, O shame of your master’s house!
19For I will hurl you from your stationAnd you shall be torn down from your stand.
20And in that day, I will summon My servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah,
21and I will invest him with your tunic, gird him with your sash, and deliver your authority into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the house of Judah.
22I will place the keys of David’s palace on his shoulders; and what he unlocks none may shut, and what he locks none may open.
23He shall be a seat of honor to his father’s household. I will fix him as a peg in a firm place,
24on which all the substance of his father’s household shall be hung: the sprouts and the leaves—all the small vessels, from bowls to all sorts of jars.
25In that day—declares GOD of Hosts—the peg fixed in a firm place shall give way: it shall be cut down and shall fall, and the weight it supports shall be destroyed. For it is GOD who has spoken.