The Valley of Vision
1 The burden against the valley of vision.
What ails you now,
that you have all gone up to the housetops?
2 You that are full of shouting,
a tumultuous city, a town of revelry.
Your slain are not slain with the sword,
nor are they dead in battle.
3 All your rulers fled away together.
They were bound by the archers.
All who were found by you were bound together.
They fled far away.
4 Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly.
Do not labor to comfort me
for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of confusion and of treading down,
and of perplexity, from the Lord, God of Hosts, in the valley of vision,
a breaking down of the walls and a crying to the mountains.”
6 Elam carried his quiver with chariots of men and horsemen;
and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.
8 He took away the covering of Judah,
and you looked in that day to the armor in the House of the Forest.
9 You saw that there were breaches of the City of David, that they were many, and you collected the waters of the lower pool. 10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who had done this, nor did you have respect for him who planned it long ago.
12 On that day, the Lord God of Hosts
called for weeping, for mourning,
for shaving of heads and for dressing in sackcloth.
13 But instead there was joy and gladness,
killing cattle and sheep,
eating meat and drinking wine,
“Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”
14 The Lord of Hosts revealed himself in my ears,
“Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven of you until you die,”
says the Lord God of Hosts.
A Message for Shebna
15 The Lord God of Hosts says, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, to Shebna, who is over the house and say, 16 ‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!”
17 The Lord will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly. 18 He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, a shame to the house of your lord. 19 I will remove you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.
20 It will happen on that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand, and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 I will lay the key of the House of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open. 23 I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be as a throne of glory to his father’s house.
24 They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the pitchers.
25 “On that day,” says the Lord of Hosts, “The nail that was fastened in a secure place will give way. It will be cut down and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken it.”