Top of Page
Page Style
oracle concerning the Valley of Vision.
What troubles you now, that you have all gone up,
all of you, to the rooftops,
2 you, who are filled with revelry,
O tumultuous city, jubilant town?
Your dead are not slain with the sword,
nor did they die in battle.
3 All your rulers have fled together;
they were captured without using the bow.
All who were found were captured,
though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said, “Look away from me,
let me weep bitterly;
do not try to comfort me
over the destruction of my beloved people.”
5 For the Lord God of Hosts has a day
of tumult and trampling down and terror
in the Valley of Vision,
a breaking down of the walls,
and crying to the mountains for help.
6 Elam takes the quiver
with chariots and horsemen,
and Kir uncovers the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,
and horsemen are arrayed at the gates.
8 He has removed the defences of Judah.
On that day when you looked
to the weapons in the House of the Forest.
9 You saw there were many breaches
in the defences of the City of David.
You stored up water
from the lower pool.
10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem,
and you tore them down to fortify the wall.
11 You made a reservoir between the two walls
for the waters of the old pool.
But you did not look to the Maker,
or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.
12 On that day the Lord God of Hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for shaved heads,
and the wearing of sackcloth.
13 But instead there was joy and festivity,
slaughtering oxen and killing sheep,
eating meat and drinking wine—
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
14 The Lord of Hosts has revealed in my ears,
“Surely this iniquity of yours will not be forgiven,
even to your death,”
says the Lord God of Hosts.
15 This is what the Lord, the God of Hosts, says:
“Go to that steward,
to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace
and say to him:
16 ‘What are you doing here?
‘Who gave you permission
to carve out a tomb for yourself here,
hewing your tomb on the heights,
and carving your resting place in the rock?
17 ‘Look, the Lord is about to seize you violently
and throw you away, O mighty man.
He will take hold of you,
18 roll you up tightly,
and hurl you like a ball into a wide land.
There you will die,
and there your glorious chariots will lie—
you disgrace to your master’s house!
19 I will remove you from your office,
and you will be ousted from your position.
20 ‘On that day I will summon My servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
21 ‘I will clothe him with your robe,
and fasten your sash around him.
I will commit your authority into his hand.
‘He will be a father to the people of Jerusalem,
and to the house of Judah.
22 ‘On his shoulder I will place
the key to the house of David;
what he will open, no one will shut;
and what he will shut, no one will open.
23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place,
and he will be a throne of honour for his father’s house.
24 ‘They will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s house: the offspring and issue—all the small vessels, from the cups to all the pitchers.
25 ‘On that day,’ declares the Lord of Hosts, ‘the peg that was driven into the firm place will give way; it will shear off and fall, and the load that was on it will perish.
For the Lord has spoken’.”