The Valley of Vision

¹ This is the burden against the Valley^* of Vision:

What ails you now,

that you have all gone up to the rooftops,

² O city of commotion,

O town of revelry?

Your slain did not die by the sword,

nor were they killed in battle.

³ All your rulers have fled together,

captured without a bow.

All your fugitives were captured together,

having fled to a distant place.

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.”

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.

⁶ Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen,^*

and Kir uncovers the shield.

⁷ Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,

and horsemen^* are posted at the gates.

⁸ He has uncovered

the defenses^* of Judah.

On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest. ⁹ You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool. ¹⁰ You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall. 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.

¹² On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts

called for weeping and wailing,

for shaven heads

and the wearing of sackcloth.

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!”

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.

A Message for Shebna

¹⁵ This is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace: 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?

¹⁷ Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently^*. He will take hold^* of you,^{* 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. ¹⁹ I will remove you from 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 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. 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.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.

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.

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.