Isaiah 22

1 The word about the valley of vision. Why have all your people gone up to the house-tops?

A message about the Valley of Vision (Jerusalem). What's happening? Why has everyone gone up onto the rooftops?

2 You, who are full of loud voices, a town of outcries, given up to joy; your dead men have not been put to the sword, or come to their death in war.

There are shouts and commotion all over the city with people celebrating. Your dead weren't killed by the sword or in battle.

3 All your rulers ... have gone in flight; all your strong ones have gone far away.

All your leaders ran away together; they were captured without resistance. All your people trying to escape were captured together, even though they had run a long way away.

4 For this cause I have said, Let your eyes be turned away from me in my bitter weeping; I will not be comforted for the wasting of the daughter of my people.

That's why I said, “Go away! Let me mourn in peace. Don't insist on comforting me as the daughter of my people is ruined.”

5 For it is a day of trouble and of crushing down and of destruction from the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the valley of vision; ...

For the Lord has a day of defeat, of panic and confusion in the Valley of Vision, a day of tearing down walls and crying for help to the mountains.

6 And Elam was armed with arrows, and Aram came on horseback; and the breastplate of Kir was uncovered.

The Elamites pick up their quivers full of arrows, and prepare their chariots and horsemen, while the people of Kir uncover their shields ready for battle.

7 And your most fertile valleys were full of war-carriages, and the horsemen took up their positions in front of the town.

Your most productive valleys are now full of enemy chariots; and their cavalry are at your gates!

8 He took away the cover of Judah; and in that day you were looking with care at the store of arms in the house of the woods.

Judah's defenses have been stripped away and so at that time you went looking for weapons in the Palace of the Forest.

9 And you saw all the broken places in the wall of the town of David: and you got together the waters of the lower pool.

You examined the breaks in the walls of the City of David and found there were many. You had water collect in the lower pool.

10 And you had the houses of Jerusalem numbered, pulling down the houses to make the wall stronger.

Your reviewed the number of houses in the city and demolished some to provide stone to repair the walls.

11 And you made a place between the two walls for storing the waters of the old pool: but you gave no thought to him who had done this, and were not looking to him by whom it had been purposed long before.

You built a reservoir inside the walls for the waters from the old pool, but you did not respect its Maker or think about the One who planned it long ago.

12 And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was looking for weeping, and cries of sorrow, cutting off of the hair, and putting on the clothing of grief:

At that time the Lord, the Lord Almighty, was calling you to weep and mourn, to shave your heads and wear sackcloth.

13 But in place of these there was joy and delight, oxen and sheep were being made ready for food, there was feasting and drinking: men said, Now is the time for food and wine, for tomorrow death comes.

Instead, you go on happily partying! You slaughter cattle and sheep so you can have your feasts, eating meat and drinking wine, saying, “Let's eat and drink, because we're going to die tomorrow!”

14 And the Lord of armies said to me secretly, Truly, this sin will not be taken from you till your death, says the Lord, the Lord of armies.

The Lord Almighty has made this clear to me: “I will not forgive this sin till your dying day, says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.”

15 The Lord, the Lord of armies, says, Go to this person in authority, this Shebna, who is over the house; who has made himself a resting-place on high, cutting out a place for himself in the rock, and say,

This is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, told me to do. “Go to Shebna, the palace manager, and give him this message:

16 Who are you, and by what right have you made for yourself a resting-place here?

‘What are you doing here? Who do you think you are, cutting out a tomb for yourself high up on a hill, carving out for yourself a place to rest?

17 See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently away, gripping you with force,

Watch out, you “great man”! The Lord is about to grab you and violently toss you aside.

18 Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send you out into a wide country: there you will come to your end, and there will be the carriages of your pride, O shame of your lord's house!

He's going to roll you up into a ball, and throw you far away into a vast country. You will die there, and that's where the chariots you were so proud of will remain. You're a disgrace to your lord's royal family.

19 And I will have you forced out of your place of authority, and pulled down from your position.

I will push you out of office, I will strip you of your position.

20 And in that day I will send for my servant, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah:

After that I will call for my servant, Eliakim, son of Hilkiah.

21 And I will put your robe on him, and put your band about him, and I will give your authority into his hand: and he will be a father to the men of Jerusalem, and to the family of Judah.

I will put your robe and place your sash around him, and I will give your authority to him. He will be a father to the people living in Jerusalem and Judah.

22 And I will give the key of the family of David into his care; and what he keeps open will be shut by no one, and what he keeps shut no one will make open.

I will give him the key to the house of David. What he opens, nobody can shut; what he shuts, nobody can open.

23 And I will put him like a nail in a safe place; and he will be for a seat of glory to his father's family.

I will drive him like a nail hammered securely into a wall. He will bring honor to his family.

24 And all the glory of his father's family will be hanging on him, all their offspring, every small vessel, even the cups and the basins.

The heavy burden of his father's family will hang on him—all the descendants and the inlaws—all the little containers, bowls and all kinds of jars.

25 In that day, says the Lord of armies, will the nail fixed in a safe place give way; and it will be cut down, and in its fall the weight hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has said it.

So the time will come, declares the Lord Almighty, when the nail will come out of the wall, even though it was hammered in securely. It will break off and fall down, and everything hanging on it will fall down too. The Lord has spoken.