Isaiah 22

1An oracle about the valley of vision. What is wrong with you now, that all of you have climbed up onto the roofs? 2You are full of shouting, a city in uproar, a town in high spirits. Your dead were not cut down by the sword or killed in battle. 3All your leaders ran away together and were taken prisoner without a bow being drawn. All of you who were found were captured together, though they had fled far away. 4So I said, “Turn your eyes away from me; leave me to my bitter weeping. Do not rush to comfort me for the ruin of the daughter of my people.” 5For the Lord GOD of Armies brings a day of panic and trampling and confusion to the valley of vision, a day when walls are broken through and cries ring out toward the mountain. 6Elam shouldered its quiver, with chariots, men and horsemen, and Kir stripped the cover from its shield. 7Your finest valleys were filled with chariots, and horsemen took up their stations at the gates. 8Judah’s covering was torn off, and on that day you turned your eyes to the weapons in the House of the Forest. 9You saw how many breaches there were in the city of David, and you gathered in the water of the lower pool. 10You numbered the houses of Jerusalem and broke some of them down to make the wall stronger. 11Between the two walls you made a basin to hold the water of the old pool. But you never looked to its maker, or paid heed to the one who formed it long ago. 12On that day the Lord GOD of Armies called for weeping and lament, for shaved heads and for the wearing of sackcloth. 13Instead, there was feasting and merriment, cattle killed and sheep butchered, meat eaten and wine poured. “Let us eat and drink,” you said, “because tomorrow we will die!” 14The LORD of Armies has made himself known to my ears: This guilt of yours will never be atoned for until the day you die, says the Lord GOD of Armies.

15The Lord GOD of Armies says this: “Go to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace, and say to him, 16‘What right do you have here, and who are your relatives here, that you have hewn a tomb for yourself here? He carves his grave high on the hill and hollows out a home for himself in the rock! 17Look out, you strong man! The LORD is going to fling you far away and grip you hard. 18He will wind you round and round and fling you like a ball into a broad, open country. There you will die, and there your splendid chariots will stay, you disgrace to your master’s house! 19I will drive you out of your office, and he will pull you down from your post. 20When that day comes, I will call for my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 21I will dress him in your robe and bind your sash on him. I will place your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the people of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. When he opens, no one will close; when he closes, no one will open. 23I will drive him in like a peg where the ground holds fast, and he will be a seat of honor for his father’s house. 24They will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s family, its children and its descendants, every small vessel, from basins to every storage jar. 25On that day, declares the LORD of Armies, the peg fixed in a secure place will work loose. It will be hacked off and fall, and everything it held will be cut away, for the LORD has spoken.’”