Isaiah 22

The Valley of Vision

1An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision:
What is happening to you,
that all of you have climbed onto the roofs? 2You are full of uproar,
a noisy city, a town of revelry.
Your slain were not killed by the sword
or did they die in battle. 3All your leaders fled together;
without a bow being drawn they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured together,
though you had fled far away. 4So I said, “Look away from me;
let me weep bitterly.
Do not press me to be comforted
over the devastation of my people’s daughter.”

5The Lord GOD of hosts has a day
of tumult, trampling, and confusion
in the Valley of Vision—
walls battered down,
cries reaching the mountains. 6Elam carries the quiver,
with chariots, men, and horsemen;
Kir uncovers the shield. 7Your finest valleys fill with chariots;
horsemen take their stand at the gate. 8Judah’s defenses are stripped away.
On that day you looked to the weapons
in the House of the Forest.

9You saw the many breaches in David’s City
and collected the water of the lower pool. 10You counted Jerusalem’s houses
and tore houses down to strengthen the wall. 11You made a reservoir between the two walls
for the old pool’s water.
But you did not look to its Maker
or see the one who fashioned it long ago. 12On that day the Lord GOD of hosts called
for weeping and mourning,
shaved heads and sackcloth.

13But look—joy and revelry,
killing cattle and slaughtering sheep,
eating meat and drinking wine!
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die!” 14The LORD of hosts revealed this in my hearing: “Surely this guilt will not be atoned for until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15The Lord GOD of hosts says, “Go to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace, and say: 16‘What do you have here? Whom do you have here, that you have cut yourself a tomb here—hewing your grave on a height, carving yourself a dwelling in the rock?

17Look, the LORD is about to hurl you away, mighty man! He will seize you tightly, 18wrap you round and round like a ball, and throw you into a broad land. There you will die, and there your splendid chariots will be—you disgrace to your master’s house! 19I will thrust you from your office; he will pull you down from your position. 20On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

21I will clothe him in your robe, bind your sash around him, and place your authority in his hand. He will be a father to Jerusalem’s inhabitants and the house of Judah. 22I will place the key of David’s house 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 become a throne of honor for his father’s house. 24On him they will hang all the weight of his father’s house—offspring and offshoots, every small vessel, from bowls to every sort of jar.’

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