22
1 The oracle concerning the Valley of Vision.
What is the matter with you now, that all of you have gone up to the rooftops,
2 you who are full of uproar, a bustling city, an exultant town?
Your slain were not slain by the sword or killed in battle.
3 All your rulers have fled together;
they were bound without a bow.
All your people who were found were bound together, though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said, “Look away from me;
let me weep bitterly.
Do not press to comfort me over the devastation of the daughter of my people.”
5 For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day of tumult, trampling, and confusion in the Valley of Vision, a breaking down of walls and a cry to the mountain.
6 Elam carries the quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovers the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and the horsemen take their stand at the gate.
8 He has removed Judah’s covering, and in that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest.
9 You saw that the breaches in the City of David were many, and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.
10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore down houses to fortify the wall.
11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool, but you did not look to the one who made it or regard the one who formed it long ago.
12 In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.
13 But behold, joy and gladness, slaughtering cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die!”
14 The LORD of hosts revealed in my hearing, “Surely this iniquity shall not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.
15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “Go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the house:
16 ‘What have you here, and whom have you here, that you have hewn out a tomb for yourself here, hewing your tomb on high, carving a dwelling for yourself in the rock?
17 Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you away violently, you mighty man, and seize you firmly.
18 He will surely wind you up like a ball and throw you into a spacious land.
There you shall die, and there your glorious chariots shall be, you disgrace to your master’s house.’
19 I will thrust you from your office, and from your position he will tear you down.
20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
21 I will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash around him;
I will put your authority in his hand.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22 I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder;
he shall open, and no one shall shut;
he shall shut, and no one shall open.
23 I will fasten him like a peg in a firm place, and he shall become a throne of honor for his father’s house.
24 They will hang on him all the honor of his father’s house, the offspring and the descendants, every small vessel, from bowls to every kind of jar.”
25 “In that day,” declares the LORD of hosts, “the peg fastened in a firm place shall give way, be cut down, and fall.
The load upon it shall be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”