Isaiah 22:1-14

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.