The Lantern

Isaiah22

The Valley of Vision

An oracle of the Valley of Vision. What is it to you, then, that you have gone up, all of you, to the roofs —

you who are full of shoutings, a town in tumult, an exulting city? Your slain are not slain by the sword and are not dead in war.

All your chiefs have fled together, without a bow they were bound; all of you who were found were bound together, from far off they had fled.

Therefore I said: Look away from me, let me be bitter in weeping; do not press to comfort me over the devastation of the daughter of my people.

For it is a day of confusion and trampling and bewilderment, from the Lord GOD of hosts, in the Valley of Vision — a battering of wall, and a cry to the mountain.

And Elam lifted the quiver, with the chariotry of men, with horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.

And it was that the choicest of your valleys were filled with chariotry, and the horsemen took position, taking position at the gate.

And he uncovered the screen of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons of the House of the Forest.

And the breaches of the City of David — you saw that they were many; and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.

And the houses of Jerusalem you counted, and you pulled the houses down to fortify the wall.

And you made a reservoir between the two walls for the waters of the old pool. But you did not look to the one who made it, and the one who fashioned it long ago you did not see.

And the Lord GOD of hosts called in that day for weeping and for lamentation, for baldness and for girding sackcloth —

and see, joy and gladness! Killing cattle and slaughtering sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

And it was revealed in my ears by the LORD of hosts: This iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die, says the Lord GOD of hosts.

A Message for Shebna

Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: Go, come to this steward, to Shebna who is over the house —

What is yours here, and who is yours here, that you have hewn out for yourself a grave here, hewing his grave on high, cutting out for himself a dwelling in the rock?

See, the LORD is about to hurl you away with a hurling, man, and he will grip you tight;

he will surely wind you round and round like a ball into a land wide on both hands. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be the dishonor of your master’s house.

And I will thrust you from your station, and from your post he will pull you down.

And it will be, in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

And I will clothe him with your tunic and bind him tight with your sash, and your dominion I will give into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitant of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

And I will put the key of the house of David upon his shoulder; and he will open and none will shut, and he will shut and none will open.

And I will drive him in as a peg in a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.

And they will hang upon him all the glory of the house of his father — the offshoots and the offspring, every small vessel, from the bowls to all the jars.

In that day — the utterance of the LORD of hosts — the peg driven in a firm place will give way, and be cut down and fall; and the load that was upon it will be cut off — for the LORD has spoken.