Isaiah 22

1. The burden against the Valley of Vision. What ails you now, that you have gone up to the housetops?

2. O town full of commotion, O city of tumult and revelry that fills the noisy city, the raucous city. Your slain ones are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.

3. All your rulers fled together; they were bound without the bow; all who are found in you are bound together; they have fled afar off.

4. Therefore I said, “Look away from me; I will weep bitterly; do not hurry to comfort me because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

5. For it is a day of trouble, and of trampling down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the Valley of Vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountain.

6. And Persia carried the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.

7. And it came to pass, your choicest valleys were full of chariots; and the horsemen surely shall set themselves in order at the gate.

8. And he removed Judah’s covering, and you looked in that day to the armor of the house of the forest.

9.You have seen also the breaks in the city of David, that they are many; and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.

10. And you have counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you have broken down the houses to fortify the wall.

11. You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool; but you have not looked to Him Who has done this, neither have you respect unto Him Who formed it long ago.

12. And on that day the LORD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, and for baldness, and for girding with sackcloth.

13. Then, lo, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, saying, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

14. And it was revealed in my ears by the LORD of hosts, “Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.

15. Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Go, go up to this treasurer, to Shebna who is over the house. Say,

16. ‘What do you have here? And whom do you have here, that you have carved out a tomb for yourself here, as one who cuts himself out a tomb on high, who cuts out a habitation for himself in a rock?

17. Behold, the LORD will carry you away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover you.

18. He will roll you up like a ball and throw you into a large country. There the chariots of your glory shall be, the shame of your lord’s house.

19. And I will drive you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.

20. And in that day it shall be, even I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.

21. And I will clothe him with your robe, and will fasten your girdle on him, and I will give your government into his hand. And he shall be a father to the people of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

22. And the key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

23. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.

24. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the posterity, all small vessels, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of jars.

25. In that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘the nail that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed, and be cut down, and fall. And the burden that was upon it shall be cut off. The LORD has spoken it.’ ”