Isaías 22

PROPHECY CONCERNING THE VALLEY OF VISION

¹ What troubles you now that you have all gone up on the roof?

² You are a town full of commotion, a city of tumult and revelry. The sword did not kill your slain, nor did they die in battle.

³ All your leaders have fled together. They have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together. You fled while the enemy was still far away.

⁴ I said: »Turn away from me. Let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.«

⁵ The Lord Jehovah of Hosts has a day of tumult, trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision. It is a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains.

⁶ Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses. Kir uncovers the shield.

⁷ Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates.

⁸ The defenses of Judah are stripped away. And you looked in that day to the weapons in the house of the forest.

⁹ You saw that the City of David had many breaches in its defenses. You stored up water in the lower pool.

¹⁰ You counted the houses of Jerusalem. Then you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹ You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago.

¹² In that day Jehovah God of Hosts called to weeping and mourning, to baldness and putting on sackcloth.

¹³ Instead there was joy and festivity, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. »Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.«

¹⁴ Jehovah of Hosts has disclosed himself in my ears: »Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,« says Jehovah of Hosts.

¹⁵ Jehovah of Hosts says: »Go to this steward, to Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him:

¹⁶ »‘What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb on the height, and carving a habitation for yourself in the rock?

¹⁷ »‘Jehovah will violently throw you away, O mighty man. He will surely seize you.

¹⁸ »‘He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball into a large country! There you shall die, and there your glorious chariots will be the shame of your master’s house.’

¹⁹ »‘I will drive you out of your office. He will pull you down from your position.

²⁰ »‘Then in that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.

²¹ »‘I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

²² »‘I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut and he will shut, and no one will open.

²³ »‘I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place. He will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.

²⁴ »‘They will hang all the glory of his father’s house on him, the offspring and the posterity, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pitchers.

²⁵ »‘Jehovah of Hosts says: ‘In that day the peg that is fastened in the secure place will be removed and be cut down and fall. The load that was on it will be destroyed.’« Jehovah has spoken.