Isaiah 22

¹Isaiah 22:1. This is the burden against the Valley of Vision: What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops,²Isaiah 22:2. O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.³Isaiah 22:3. All your rulers have fled together, captured without a bow. All your fugitives were captured together, having fled to a distant place.⁴Isaiah 22:4. Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”⁵Isaiah 22:5. For the Lord GOD of Hosts has set a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision—of breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains.⁶Isaiah 22:6. Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovers the shield.⁷Isaiah 22:7. Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the gates.⁸Isaiah 22:8. He has uncovered the defenses of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest.⁹Isaiah 22:9. You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool.¹⁰Isaiah 22:10. You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall.¹¹Isaiah 22:11. You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or consider Him who planned it long ago.¹²Isaiah 22:12. On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.¹³Isaiah 22:13. But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”¹⁴Isaiah 22:14. The LORD of Hosts has revealed in my hearing: “Until your dying day, this sin of yours will never be atoned for,” says the Lord GOD of Hosts.

¹⁵Isaiah 22:15. This is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace:¹⁶Isaiah 22:16. What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?¹⁷Isaiah 22:17. Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you,¹⁸Isaiah 22:18. roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master.¹⁹Isaiah 22:19. I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.²⁰Isaiah 22:20. On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.²¹Isaiah 22:21. I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.²²Isaiah 22:22. I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.²³Isaiah 22:23. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.²⁴Isaiah 22:24. So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the lesser vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar.²⁵Isaiah 22:25. In that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and fall, and the load upon it will be cut down.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.