Isaiah 22

English Standard Version

An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem

22 The ^(A)oracle concerning ^(B)the valley of vision.

What do you mean that you have gone up,
    all of you, to the housetops,
²you who are full of shoutings,
    tumultuous city, ^(C)exultant town?
Your slain are ^(D)not slain with the sword
    or dead in battle.
³^(E)All your leaders have fled together;
    without the bow they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured,
    though they had fled far away.
⁴Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
    ^(F)let me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵^(G)For the Lord God of hosts has ^(H)a day
    of tumult and ^(I)trampling and ^(J)confusion
    in ^(K)the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
    and a shouting to the mountains.
⁶And ^(L)Elam bore the quiver
    with chariots and horsemen,
    and ^(M)Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
⁸He has taken away ^(N)the covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to ^(O)the weapons of the House of the Forest, ⁹and you saw that ^(P)the breaches of the city of David were many. ^(Q)You collected the waters of the lower pool, ¹⁰and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹^(R)You made a reservoir between ^(S)the two walls for the water of ^(T)the old pool. But ^(U)you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

¹²In that day ^(V)the Lord God of hosts
    called for weeping and mourning,
    for ^(W)baldness and ^(X)wearing sackcloth;
¹³and behold, joy and gladness,
    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
    eating flesh and drinking wine.
^(Y)“Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we die.”
¹⁴The Lord of hosts ^(Z)has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely ^(AA)this iniquity will not be atoned for you ^(AB)until you die,”
    says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to ^(AC)Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: ¹⁶What have you to do here, and whom have you here, ^(AD)that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you ^(AE)who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? ¹⁷Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. ^(AF)He will seize firm hold on you ¹⁸and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be ^(AG)your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. ¹⁹^(AH)I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. ²⁰In that day I will call my servant ^(AI)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, ²¹and ^(AJ)I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be ^(AK)a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²²And I will place ^(AL)on his shoulder ^(AM)the key of the house of David. ^(AN)He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. ²³And I will fasten him ^(AO)like a peg in a secure place, and he will become ^(AP)a throne of honor to his father's house. ²⁴And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. ²⁵In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, ^(AQ)the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”