Isaiah 22
1 A message about the Valley of Vision. What is happening to you, that you have all gone up to the rooftops?
2 A city full of shouting, a noisy city, a joyful town! Your dead did not die by the sword or fall in battle.
3 All your leaders fled together, captured without a bow being used. All who were found among you were captured together, though they had fled far away.
4 So I said, “Do not look at me; let me weep bitterly. Do not keep trying to comfort me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 For the Lord GOD of Armies has set a day of turmoil, trampling, and confusion in the Valley of Vision—a day of tearing down walls and crying out to the mountain.
6 Elam took up the quiver, with chariots and horsemen; Kir uncovered its shield.
7 Your finest valleys filled with chariots, and horsemen took their positions at the gate.
8 Judah’s protection was removed. On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest.
9 You saw that the breaches in the City of David were many, and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.
10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.
11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to the one who made this, or see the one who formed it long ago.
12 On that day the Lord GOD of Armies called you to weep and mourn, to shave your heads and put on sackcloth.
13 But there was feasting and rejoicing: slaughtering cattle, killing sheep, eating meat, and drinking wine. “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
14 The LORD of Armies revealed this to my ears: “This guilt will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord GOD of Armies.
15 This is what the Lord GOD of Armies says: “Go and speak to that steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace.
16 What are you doing here, and who do you have here, that you have hewn yourself a tomb here? He carves his tomb high up; he cuts out a dwelling for himself in the rock.
17 Look, the LORD is about to hurl you away, mighty man, and seize you firmly.
18 He will roll you up tightly and throw you like a ball into a wide-open land. There you will die, and there your splendid chariots will remain, a disgrace to your master’s house.
19 I will thrust you from your office, and he will pull you down from your position.
20 On that day I will summon my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
21 I will clothe him in your robe, fasten your sash around him, and put your authority in his hand. He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22 I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut; he will shut, and no one will open.
23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will become a throne of honor for his father’s house.
24 All the glory of his father’s house will hang on him: the descendants and offspring, every small vessel, from the bowls to all the jars.
25 On that day, declares the LORD of Armies, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load hanging on it will be destroyed, for the LORD has spoken.”
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