The Valley of Vision

1The burden of the Valley of Vision:

What with you then,

that you have gone up, all of you, to the rooftops,

2full of noise

O city murmuring, O jubilant town?

Your slain are not those slain by the sword,

and they were not killed in battle.

3All your rulers have fled together,

without a bow they are bound;

all those being found in you are bound together;

they have fled far away.

4Upon thus I said,

“Look away from me, let me be bitter;

do not hurry in my weeping to comfort me

over the destruction of the daughter of my people!”

5For it is a day of tumult and trampling and confusion

unto the Lord YHWH of Hosts in the Valley of Vision,

digging down a wall

and crying to the mountain.

6And Elam bore the quiver with chariots of man and horsemen,

and Kir uncovered the shield.

7And it will come to pass that that the choicest of your valleys will be full of of chariots,

and the horsemen are set diligently at the gate.

8And He uncovered

the screen of Judah.

And You looked on that day to the weapons of the House of the Forest. 9And the breaches of the city of David you⁺ saw, that they were many. And you⁺ gathered together the waters of the lower pool. 10And the houses of Jerusalem you⁺ numbered, and you⁺ broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11And you⁺ made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool, and you⁺ did not look to the one who made it, and Him who fashioned it long ago you⁺ did not see.

12And the Lord YHWH of Hosts called on that day

for weeping, and for wailing,

and for baldness,

and for girding with sackcloth.

13And behold, joy and gladness,

slaying of oxen and slaughtering of sheep,

the eating of flesh and drinking of wine:

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!†”

14And it was revealed in my ears by YHWH of Hosts:

“This iniquity will not be atoned for from you⁺

even until you⁺ die,”

says the Lord YHWH of Hosts.

A Message for Shebna

15Thus says the Lord YHWH of Hosts: “Go, come to this steward, to Shebna who is over the house: 16What is unto you here, and who is unto you here, that have hewn out for yourself here a tomb, hewing out his tomb on high, carving a resting place in the rock for himself?

17Behold, YHWH is going to hurl you with a great hurling, and will grasp hold of you with a firm grasp, O strong one; 18He will wind you round and round, tossing you like a ball into a land broad of sides; you will die there, and there the chariots of your glory will be the shame of the house of your master! 19And I will thrust you from your station, and one will throw you down from your position.

20And it will be on that day, I will call My servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, 21and I will clothe him with your tunic and strengthen him with your sash, and I will give your rule into his hand; and He will be as a father to those dwelling in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22And I will place the key of the house of David upon his shoulder. And he will open, and no one is shutting; and he will shut, and no one is opening.† 23And I will fasten him like a peg in a place that is firm, and he will become as a throne of glory to the house of his father.

24And they will hang on him all the glory of the house of his father—the offspring and the posterity, and all the vessels of small size, from all the cups, and unto all the vessels of jars.

25In that day, a declaration of YHWH of Hosts, the peg that is fastened will give way, into a firm place, it will be sheared off, and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off,”

for YHWH has spoken.