Isaiah 22

¹ Oracle against the Valley of Hinnom: What is the matter now that you are all climbing with one accord to the housetops,

² you the uproarious, the boisterous town, the joyful city? Your slain were not slain by the sword, your dead have not fallen in battle;

³ your rulers have all fled away and been captured before bending their bows; and the bravest among you have been taken prisoner, they have fled far away.

⁴ That is why I say, ‘Turn your eyes away from me, let me weep bitterly; do not try to comfort me over the destruction of the daughter of my people’.

⁵ For this, a day of panic and rout, is from the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth. In the Valley of Hinnom a wall is thrown down, they are shouting for help on the mountains.

⁶ Elam takes up his quiver, Aram mounts his horse and Kir[*a] fetches out his shield.

⁷ Your fairest valleys are filled with chariots and the horsemen take up positions at the gates;

⁸ thus falls the defence of Judah.

⁹ You saw how many breaches there were in the Citadel of David. You collected the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰ You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you pulled down houses to strengthen the wall.

¹¹ In the middle you made a reservoir between the two walls for the waters of the old pool. But you had no thought for the Maker, no eyes for him who shaped everything long ago.

¹² The Lord Yahweh Sabaoth called you that day to weep and mourn, to shave your heads, to put on sackcloth;

¹³ instead, there is joy and amusement, killing of oxen, slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat, drinking of wine, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may be dead’.

¹⁴ My ears have had this revelation from Yahweh Sabaoth: ‘Most certainly this sin will not be atoned for, until you die’ says the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth: Now go to this steward, to Shebna, the master of the palace,

¹⁶ who is hewing a tomb for himself high up, carving out a room for himself in the rock, ‘What right have you here, and what relatives have you here for you to hew yourself a tomb in this place?

¹⁷ See, Yahweh hurls you down, down with a single throw; then with a strong grip he grips you,

¹⁸ and he winds you up into a ball and hurls you into an immense country. There you will die, and there will be sent the chariots you were so proud of, you, the disgrace of your master’s palace.’

¹⁹ I dismiss you from your office, I remove you from your post,

²⁰ and the same day I call on my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

²¹ I invest him with your robe, gird him with your sash, entrust him with your authority; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.

²² I place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; should he open, no one shall close, should he close, no one shall open.

²³ I drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a throne of glory for his father’s house.

²⁴ On it they will hang all the glory of his father’s house, offspring and issue, all the least of vessels from cups to pitchers.

²⁵ That day – it is Yahweh Sabaoth who speaks – the peg driven into a firm place will give way. It will be torn out and will fall. And the whole load hanging on it will be shattered, for Yahweh has spoken.