1This is the divine revelation about the valley of Vision. What's the matter with you? Why do all of you go up on the roofs?

2You are a city filled with shouting, a town filled with noise and excitement. Your people weren't killed with swords. Your dead didn't die in battle.

3All your leaders fled together and were captured without their bows and arrows. All those who were found were taken prisoner before any of them could get far away.

4That is why I say, "Turn away from me so that I can cry bitterly. Don't try to comfort me because of the destruction brought on my people."

5The Almighty LORD of Armies has chosen a special day. It will be a day of confusion and trampling in the valley of Vision, [a day of] tearing down walls and crying for help in the mountains.

6Elam takes its quiver of arrows, manned chariots, and horsemen. Kir uncovers its shields.

7Then your fertile valleys will be filled with chariots, and horsemen will stand ready in front of the gate.

8On that day the LORD will remove the defenses of Judah. You will look for weapons in the House of the Forest.

9You will see how many places in David's wall are broken. You will store water in the Lower Pool.

10You will count the houses in Jerusalem. You will tear down those houses in order to fortify the walls.

11You will build a reservoir between the two walls to hold the water of the Old Pool. You didn't look to Jerusalem's maker. You didn't see the one who formed it long ago.

12On that day the Almighty LORD of Armies will call for crying and for mourning, for shaving your heads and for wearing sackcloth.

13Instead, you will rejoice, celebrate, slaughter cattle, and butcher sheep. You will eat meat, drink wine, and say, "Let's eat and drink because tomorrow we're going to die."

14The LORD of Armies revealed this to me: "Certainly, this wrong will not be forgiven even when you die," says the Almighty LORD of Armies.

15This is what the Almighty LORD of Armies says: Go to Shebna, the man in charge of the palace, and say [to him],

16"What are you doing here? What right do you have to dig a tomb for yourself? What right do you have to cut it out in a prominent place? What right do you have to carve out a resting place for yourself in the rock?

17Look, mighty man! The LORD will throw you out. He will grab you.

18He will wrap you up tightly like a turban. He will throw you far away into another land. There you will die. There your splendid chariots will remain. There you will become a disgrace to your master's household.

19"I will remove you from your office and do away with your position.

20When that day comes, I will call my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah.

21I will dress him in your linen robe and fasten it with your belt. I will give him your authority, and he will be like a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the nation of Judah.

22I will place the key of the house of David around his neck. What he opens no one will shut. What he shuts no one will open.

23I will fasten him firmly in place like a peg, and he will be a source of honor for his father's household.

24They will hang on him the whole weight of his father's household, descendants and offspring and all the little utensils, from bowls to jars of every kind." 25The LORD of Armies declares, "On that day the peg which I firmly fastened in place will be removed. It will be cut off and will fall, and everything hanging on it will be destroyed." The LORD has spoken.