Isaiah 22

1An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision: What is wrong with you now, that all of you have gone up on the rooftops,

2you city full of commotion, you noisy town, you exultant city? Your slain were not slain by the sword, nor did they die in battle.

3All your leaders have fled together; they were taken captive without a bow being drawn. All your people who were found were taken captive together, though they had fled far away.

4Therefore I said, “Look away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

5For the Lord Yahweh of Armies has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains.

6Elam takes up the quiver, with chariots, men, and horsemen, and Kir uncovers the shield.

7Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen take their positions at the gate.

8He has stripped away the covering of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest.

9You saw that the breaches in the City of David were many, and you collected the waters of the Lower Pool.

10You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you tore down houses to strengthen the wall.

11You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool. But you did not look to the one who made it, or consider the one who planned it long ago.

12On that day the Lord Yahweh of Armies called for weeping and mourning, for shaving the head and putting on sackcloth.

13But look—joy and celebration, killing cattle and slaughtering sheep, eating meat and drinking wine! “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

14Yahweh of Armies has revealed this in my hearing: Surely this guilt will not be atoned for until you die, says the Lord Yahweh of Armies.

15This is what the Lord Yahweh of Armies says: Go to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace:

16What are you doing here, and whom do you have here, that you have cut out a tomb for yourself here—cutting out his tomb on the height, carving a resting place for himself in the rock?

17Look, Yahweh is about to hurl you away violently, you strong man. He will seize you firmly,

18wind you up tightly, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain, you disgrace to your master’s house.

19I will thrust you from your office, and he will pull you down from your post.

20On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

21I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to the people of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

22I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder. What he opens, no one will shut; what he shuts, no one will open.

23I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of honor for his father’s house.

24They will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s house, offspring and offshoots, all the small vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.

25On that day, declares Yahweh of Armies, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off, for Yahweh has spoken.