Isaiah 22-23

New King James Version

What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
² You who are full of noise,
A ^[b]tumultuous city, ^(A)a joyous city?
Your slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.
³ All your rulers have fled together;
They are captured by the archers.
All who are found in you are bound together;
They have fled from afar.
⁴ Therefore I said, “Look away from me,
^(B)I will weep bitterly;
Do not labor to comfort me
Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”

^5 (C)For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity
^(D)By the Lord God of hosts
In the Valley of Vision—
Breaking down the walls
And of crying to the mountain.
^6 (E)Elam bore the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And ^(F)Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys
Shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

^8 (G)He removed the ^[c]protection of Judah.
You looked in that day to the armor ^(H)of the House of the Forest;
^9 (I)You also saw the ^[d]damage to the city of David,
That it was great;
And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
¹⁰ You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses you broke down
To fortify the wall.
^11 (J)You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the water of the old ^(K)pool.
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.

¹² And in that day the Lord God of hosts
^(L)Called for weeping and for mourning,
^(M)For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
¹³ But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and ^(N)drinking wine:
^(O)“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

^14 (P)Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts,
“Surely for this iniquity there ^(Q)will be no atonement for you,
Even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts.

“Go, proceed to this steward,
To ^(R)Shebna, who is over the house, and say:
¹⁶ ‘What have you here, and whom have you here,
That you have hewn a sepulcher here,
As he ^(S)who hews himself a sepulcher on high,
Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock?
¹⁷ Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently,
O mighty man,
^(T)And will surely seize you.
¹⁸ He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball
Into a large country;
There you shall die, and there ^(U)your glorious chariots
Shall be the shame of your master’s house.
¹⁹ So I will drive you out of your office,
And from your position ^[e]he will pull you down.

²⁰ ‘Then it shall be in that day,
That I will call My servant ^(V)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah;
²¹ I will clothe him with your robe
And strengthen him with your belt;
I will commit your responsibility into his hand.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And to the house of Judah.
²² The key of the house of David
I will lay on his ^(W)shoulder;
So he shall ^(X)open, and no one shall shut;
And he shall shut, and no one shall open.
²³ I will fasten him as ^(Y)a peg in a secure place,
And he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.

Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For it is laid waste,
So that there is no house, no harbor;
From the land of ^[g]Cyprus it is revealed to them.

² Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon,
^[h]Whom those who cross the sea have filled.
³ And on great waters the grain of Shihor,
The harvest of ^[i]the River, is her revenue;
And ^(AA)she is a marketplace for the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea has spoken,
The strength of the sea, saying,
“I do not labor, nor bring forth children;
Neither do I rear young men,
Nor bring up virgins.”
^5 (AB)When the report reaches Egypt,
They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.

⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
⁷ Is this your ^(AC)joyous city,
Whose antiquity is from ancient days,
Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?
⁸ Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, ^(AD)the crowning city,
Whose merchants are princes,
Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has ^(AE)purposed it,
To ^[j]bring to dishonor the ^(AF)pride of all glory,
To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

¹⁰ Overflow through your land like ^[k]the River,
O daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more ^[l]strength.
¹¹ He stretched out His hand over the sea,
He shook the kingdoms;
The Lord has given a commandment ^(AG)against Canaan
To destroy its strongholds.
¹² And He said, “You will rejoice no more,
O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, ^(AH)cross over to Cyprus;
There also you will have no rest.”

¹³ Behold, the land of the ^(AI)Chaldeans,
This people which was not;
Assyria founded it for ^(AJ)wild beasts of the desert.
They set up its towers,
They raised up its palaces,
And brought it to ruin.

^14 (AK)Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For your strength is laid waste.

¹⁶ “Take a harp, go about the city,
You forgotten harlot;
Make sweet melody, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.”