Isaiah 22

1 [I received] this message [from Yahweh] about Jerusalem, about the valley where [Yahweh showed me] this vision. Why is everyone foolishly running up to their [flat] rooftops?

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

2 Everyone in the city [seems to] be shouting. [There are a lot of] corpses [in the city], [but they] were not killed by [their enemies’] swords. They did not die in battles; [instead, they died from diseases and hunger].

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.

3 All the leaders of the city fled. [But then] they were captured because they did not have bows [and arrows to defend themselves]. Your [soldiers tried to] flee while the enemy [army] was still far away, but they also were captured.

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

4 That is why I said, “Allow me to cry alone; do not try to comfort me [about my people being slaughtered].”

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.

5 The Commander of the armies of angels has [chosen] a time when there will be a great uproar, [soldiers] marching, and people being terrified in the valley [where I received this] vision. [It will be a time when our city] walls will be battered down and [the people’s] cries [for help] will be heard in the mountains.

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; ...

6 The armies from Elam and Kir [in Media] will attack, driving chariots and carrying shields.

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

7 Our beautiful valleys will be filled with [our enemies’] chariots and the men who drive the chariots will stand outside [our city] gates.

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

8 The walls that protect [the cities in] Judah will fall down. You [people of Jerusalem] will run to get the weapons [that are stored in the building called] “the Hall of the Forest”.

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.

9 You will see that there are many breaks/holes in the walls of Jerusalem. You will store water in the lower pool [in the city].

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.

10 You will inspect the houses in Jerusalem, and [some of] them you will tear down to use the stones to repair the [city] wall.

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

11 Between the walls [of the city] you will build a reservoir to [store] water from the old pool. But you will never request help from the one who made the city; you have never depended on Yahweh, who planned this city long ago.

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.

12 The Commander of the armies of angels told you to weep and mourn; he told you to shave your heads and to wear rough sackcloth to show that you were sorry for the sins that you had committed.

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:

13 But instead of doing that, you were happy and celebrating; you slaughtered cattle and sheep, [in order to cook their] meat and eat it and drink wine. You said, “Let’s eat and drink [all that we want to], because [it is possible that] we will die tomorrow!”

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.

14 [So] the Commander of the armies of angels revealed this to me: “I will never forgive my people for sinning like this!”

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.

15 The Commander of the armies of angels said this [to me]: “Go to Shebna, the official who supervises the workers in the palace, and give this message to him:

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,

16 '[Who do you think you are?] Who gave you the authority to build a beautiful tomb where you will be buried, chiseling it out of the rocky cliff high above this valley?

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

17 You [think that you are] [IRO] a great man, but Yahweh is about to hurl you away. [It will be as though] he will seize you,

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

18 and roll/crumple you into a ball and throw you away into a large distant land. You will die [and be buried] there, and your beautiful chariots will stay there [in the hands of your enemies]. And [because of what happens to you], your master, [the king], will be [very] ashamed/disgraced.

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!

19 Yahweh will force you to quit working in the palace; you will be demoted from your important position.

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

20 Then I will summon Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who has served serve me [well], to replace you.

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

21 I will allow him to wear your robe, and to fasten your sash around him, and I will give to him the authority that you had. He will be like [MET] a father to the people of Jerusalem and [all the other] towns in Judah.

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.

22 I will give to him authority [MTY] over [what happens in] the palace where King David [lived]; when he decides something [MET], no one will be able to oppose it; when he refuses to do something, no one will be able to force him to do it.

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.

23 I will cause his family to be greatly respected, because I will put him firmly in his position [as supervisor of the workers in the palace], like [SIM] a nail that is firmly hammered into a wall.

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.

24 Others will enable him to have much responsibility, with the result that all the members of his family, even the most insignificant ones, will be honored.'”

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.

25 [But] the Commander of the armies of angels also says, “[Shebna is like] [MET] a peg that is firmly fastened to the wall. But there will be a time when I will [remove him from his position]; he will lose his power/influence, and everything that he promoted [MET] will fail. [That will surely happen] because [I], Yahweh, have said it.”

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.