The Valley of Vision

This is the burden against the Valley of Vision:

What ails you now,

that you have all gone up to the rooftops,

O city of commotion,

O town of revelry?

Your slain did not die by the sword,

nor were they killed in battle.

All your rulers have fled together,

captured without a bow.

All your fugitives were captured together,

having fled to a distant place.

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.”

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.

Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen,

and Kir uncovers the shield.

Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,

and horsemen are posted at the gates.

He has uncovered

the defenses of Judah.

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

On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts

called for weeping and wailing,

for shaven heads

and the wearing of sackcloth.

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!”

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.

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

Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, 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. I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.

On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 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. 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. 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.

So they will hang on him the whole burden of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the lesser vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar.

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.