Isaiah 22

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

THE WORD OF THE VALLEY OF SION. What has happened to you, that now you are all gone up to the housetops which help you not?

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

The city is filled with shouting [men]: your slain are not slain with swords, nor are your dead those who have died in battle.

3 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.

All your princes have fled, and [your] captives are tightly bound, and the mighty [men] in you have fled far away.

4 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.”

Therefore I said, Let me alone, I will weep bitterly; labour not to comfort me for the breach of the daughter of my people.

5 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.

For [it is] a day of trouble, and of destruction, and of treading down, and [there is] perplexity [sent] from the Lord of hosts: they wander in the valley of Sion; they wander from the least to the greatest on the mountains.

6 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.

And the Elamites took [their] quivers, and [there were] men mounted on horses, and [there was] a gathering for battle.

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

And it shall be [that] your choice valleys shall be filled with chariots, and horsemen shall block up your gates.

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

And they shall uncover the gates of Juda, and they shall look in that day on the choice houses of the city.

9 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.

And they shall uncover the secret places of the houses of the citadel of David: and they saw that they were many, and that one [had] turned the water of the old pool into the city;

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

and that they [had] pulled down the houses of Jerusalem, to fortify the wall of the city.

11 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.

And you procured to yourselves water between the two walls within the ancient pool: but you looked not to him that made it from the beginning, and regarded not him that created it.

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

And the Lord, the Lord of hosts, called in that day for weeping, and lamentation, and baldness, and for girding with sackcloth:

13 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!”

but they engaged in joy and gladness, slaying calves, and killing sheep, so as to eat flesh, and drink wine; saying, Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.

14 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.”

And these things are revealed in the ears of the Lord of hosts: for this sin shall not be forgiven you, until you die.

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

Thus says the Lord of hosts, Go into the chamber, to Somnas the treasurer, and say to him, Why are you here?

16 ‘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?

and what have you to do here, that you have here hewn yourself a sepulchre, and made yourself a sepulchre on high, and have graven for yourself a dwelling in the rock?

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

Behold now, the Lord of hosts casts forth and will utterly destroy [such] a man, and will take away your robe and your glorious crown,

18 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.

and will cast you into a great and unmeasured land, and there you shall die: and he will bring your fair chariot to shame, and the house of your prince to be trodden down.

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

And you shall be removed from your stewardship, and from your place.

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

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Chelcias:

21 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.

and I will put on him your robe, and I will grant him your crown with power, and I will give your stewardship into his hands: and he shall be as a father to them that dwell in Jerusalem, and to them that dwell in Juda.

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

And I will give him the glory of David; and he shall rule, and there shall be none to speak against him: and I will give him the key of the house of David [upon] his shoulder; and he shall open, and there shall be none to shut; and he shall shut, and there shall be none to open.

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

And I will make him a ruler in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne of his father's house.

24 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.

And every one that is glorious in the house of his father shall trust in him, from the least to the greatest; and they shall depend upon him in that day.

25 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.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, The man that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed and be taken away, and shall fall; and the glory that is upon him shall be utterly destroyed: for the Lord has spoken it.