Isaiah 22

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

The burden of the valley of vision. What does it mean to you, then, that each of you have even climbed to the rooftops?

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

Filled with clamor, a busy city, an exultant city: your dead have not been slain by the sword, nor did they die 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 leaders have fled together, and they have been bound by hardship. All who were found were chained together. They 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.”

For this reason, I said: “Depart from me. I will weep bitterly. Make no attempt to console me, over the devastation 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 death, and of trampling, and of weeping to the Lord, the God of hosts, in the valley of vision: examining the wall and the magnificence above the mountain.

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 Elam took up the quiver and the chariot of the horseman; and he stripped the wall of the shield.

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

And your elect valleys will be filled with chariots, and the horsemen will position themselves at the 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 the covering of Judah will be exposed, and in that day, you will see the weaponry of the forest house.

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 you will see breaches in the city of David, for these have been multiplied. But you have gathered together the waters of the lower fish-pool.

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

And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem. And you have destroyed the houses in order to fortify the wall.

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 have made a pit between two walls for the waters of the ancient fish-pool. But you have not gazed upward to him who made it, and you have not considered, even from a distance, its Maker.

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

And in that day, the Lord, the God of hosts, will call to weeping and mourning, to baldness and the wearing of 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 behold: gladness and rejoicing, the killing of calves and the slaughter of rams, the eating of meat and the drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will 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 the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you, until you die,” says the Lord, the God of hosts.

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, the God of hosts: Go forth and enter to him who lives in the tabernacle, to Shebna, who is in charge of the temple, and you shall say to him:

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?

“What are you here, or who are you claiming to be here? For you have hewn a sepulcher for yourself here. You have diligently hewn a memorial in a rock, as a tabernacle to yourself.

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

Behold, the Lord will cause you to be carried away, like a domesticated rooster, and he will remove you, like an outer garment.

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.

He will crown you with a crown of tribulation. He will toss you like a ball into a broad and spacious land. There you will die, and there the chariot of your glory will be, for it is a shame to the house of your Lord.”

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

And I will expel you from your station, and I will depose you from your ministry.

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

And this shall be in that day: I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah.

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 clothe him with your vestment, and I will strengthen him with your belt, and I will give your authority to his hand. And he shall be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

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 place the key of the house of David upon his shoulder. And when he opens, no one will close. And when he closes, no one will open.

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

And I will fasten him like a peg in a trustworthy place. And he will be upon a throne of glory in the house of his father.

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 they will suspend over him all the glory of his father’s house: various kinds of vessels and every little article, from the vessels of bowls even to every instrument of music.

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.

In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg which was fastened in a trustworthy place shall be taken away. And he will be broken, and he will fall, and he will perish, along with all that had depended upon him, because the Lord has spoken it.