Isaiah 22-24

Amplified Bible

What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
² 
You [Jerusalem] who were full of noise,
A tumultuous city, a joyous and exuberant city;
Your slain were not slain [in a glorious death] with the sword,
Nor did they die in battle.
³ 
All your leaders have fled together [with your king],
And have been captured without the bow [which they had thrown away];
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
Though they had fled far away.
⁴ 
Therefore I say, “Look away from me;
Let me weep bitterly.
Do not try to comfort me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
⁵ 
For the Lord God of hosts has a day of panic and of tumult, of trampling, of confusion
In the Valley of Vision,
A [day of] breaking down walls
And a crying [for help] to the mountain.
⁶ 
Elam took up the quiver
With the chariots, infantry and horsemen;
And Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ 
And it came to pass that your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
And the horsemen took their fixed positions [in an offensive array] at the gate [of Jerusalem].^(A)
8 
Then God removed the [protective] covering of Judah;
And in that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest (Solomon’s armory).^(B)
9 
You saw that the breaches
In the wall of the City of David [the citadel of Zion] were many;
You collected [within the city’s walls] the waters of the Lower Pool (Siloam).
¹⁰ 
Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem
And you tore down the houses [to get materials] to fortify the city wall [by extending it].
¹¹ 
You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the waters of the ^[b]Old Pool,
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you recognize Him who planned it long ago.

¹² 
Therefore in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to mourning,
To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth [in humiliation].
¹³ 
Instead, there is joy and jubilation,
Killing of oxen and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating meat and drinking wine, saying,
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
¹⁴ 
But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in my ears,
“This sin absolutely will not be forgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁵ 
For the Lord God of hosts says this, “Go to this [contemptible] steward,
To ^[c]Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household [but is building himself a tomb worthy of a king, and say to him],
¹⁶ 
‘What business do you have here?
And whom do you have here,
That you have hewn out a tomb here for yourself,
You who hew a sepulcher on the height,
You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?
¹⁷ 
‘Listen carefully, the Lord is about to hurl you away violently, O man;
And He is about to grasp you firmly
¹⁸ 
And roll you up tightly like a ball
And toss you into a vast country;
There you will die
And there your splendid chariots will be,
You shame of your master’s house.’
¹⁹ 
“I will depose you from your office,
And you will be pulled down from your position [of importance].
²⁰ 
“Then it will come to pass in that day
That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.
²¹ 
“And I will clothe him with your tunic [of distinction]
And tie your sash securely around him.
I will entrust him with your authority;
He will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
²² 
“Then I will set on his shoulder the key of the house of David;
When he opens no one will shut,
When he shuts no one will open.
²³ 
“I will drive him like a peg in a firm place,
And he will become a throne of honor and glory to his father’s house.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house, without harbor;
It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus (Kittim).
² 
Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You ^[f]merchants of Sidon;
^[g]Your messengers crossed the sea
³ 
And they were on great waters.
The grain of the ^[h]Shihor, the harvest of the Nile River, was Tyre’s revenue;
And she was the market of nations.
⁴ 
Be ashamed, O Sidon [mother-city of Tyre, now like a widow bereaved of her children];
For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have neither labored nor given birth [to children];
I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.”
⁵ 
When the report reaches Egypt,
They will be in agony at the report about Tyre.
⁶ 
Cross over to Tarshish [to seek safety as exiles];
Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland [of Tyre].
⁷ 
Is this your jubilant city,
Whose origin dates back to antiquity,
Whose feet used to carry her [far away] to colonize distant places?

⁸ 
Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
⁹ 
The Lord of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty,
To bring into contempt and humiliation all the honored of the earth.
¹⁰ 
Overflow your land like [the overflow of] the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more restraint [on you to make you pay tribute to Tyre].
¹¹ 
He has stretched out His hand over the sea,
He has shaken the kingdoms;
The Lord has given a command concerning Canaan to destroy her strongholds and her fortresses [like Tyre and Sidon].

¹² 
He has said, “You shall never again exult [in triumph], O crushed Virgin Daughter of Sidon.
Arise, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

¹⁴ 
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For your stronghold [of Tyre] is destroyed.

¹⁶ 
Take a harp, walk around the city,
O forgotten prostitute;
Play the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.

⁷ 
The new wine mourns,
The vine decays;
All the merry-hearted sigh and groan.
⁸ 
The mirth of the timbrels (tambourines) ceases,
The noise of those who rejoice ends,
The joy of the harp ceases.
⁹ 
They do not drink wine with a song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰ 
The city of chaos is broken down;
Every house is shut up so that no one may enter.
¹¹ 
There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;
All jubilation is darkened,
The joy of the earth is banished.
¹² 
Horrible desolation is left in the city,
And the gate is battered into ruins.
¹³ 
For so it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,
As the shaking of an olive tree,
As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over [and only a little of the fruit remains].
¹⁴ 
They [who have escaped and remain] raise their voices, they shout for joy;
They rejoice from the [Mediterranean] Sea in the majesty of the Lord.
¹⁵ 
Therefore honor and glorify the Lord in the east [in the region of light],
The name of the Lord, the God of Israel [honor His name],
In the coastlands and islands of the [Mediterranean] Sea.
¹⁶ 
From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory and honor to the Righteous One,”
But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe to me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
Indeed, the treacherous deal very treacherously.”
¹⁷ 
Terror and pit [of destruction] and snare
Confront you, O inhabitant of the earth.
¹⁸ 
Then it will be that he who flees at the sound of terror will fall into the pit,
And he who comes up out of the pit will be caught in the snare;
For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.
¹⁹ 
The earth is broken completely apart,
The earth is split apart,
The earth is shaken violently.
²⁰ 
The earth reels back and forth like a drunkard
And sways like a shack;
Its transgression lies heavily upon it,
And it will fall and not rise again.
²¹ 
So it will happen in that day
That the Lord will visit and punish the host (fallen angels) of heaven on high,
And the kings of the earth on the earth.^(E)
22 
They will be gathered together
As prisoners [are gathered] in a dungeon;
They will be shut up in prison,
And after many days they will be visited and punished.^(F)
23 
Then the full moon will be embarrassed and the sun ashamed,
For the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
And His glory and brilliance will shine before His elders.