1Oracle on the Valley of Vision:* a

What is the matter with you now, that you have gone up,

all of you, to the housetops,

2* You who were full of noise,

tumultuous city,

exultant town?b

Your slain are not slain with the sword,

nor killed in battle.

3All your leaders fled away together,

they were captured without use of bow;

All who were found were captured together,

though they had fled afar off.

4That is why I say: Turn away from me,

let me weep bitterly;

Do not try to comfort me

for the ruin of the daughter of my people.c

5It is a day of panic, rout and confusion,

from the Lord, the God of hosts, in the Valley of Vision*

Walls crash;

a cry for help to the mountains.

6Elam takes up the quiver,

Aram mounts the horses

and Kir* uncovers the shields.

7Your choice valleys are filled with chariots,

horses are posted at the gates—

8and shelter over Judah is removed.*

12On that day the Lord,

the God of hosts, called

For weeping and mourning,

for shaving the head and wearing sackcloth.

13But look! instead, there was celebration and joy,

slaughtering cattle and butchering sheep,

Eating meat and drinking wine:

“Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”d

This iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,

says the Lord, the God of hosts.

15Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:

Up, go to that official,

Shebna,* master of the palace,

16* “What have you here? Whom have you here,

that you have hewn for yourself a tomb here,

Hewing a tomb on high,

carving a resting place in the rock?”

17The Lord shall hurl you down headlong, mortal man!

He shall grip you firmly,

18And roll you up and toss you like a ball

into a broad land.

There you will die, there with the chariots you glory in,

you disgrace to your master’s house!

19I will thrust you from your office

and pull you down from your station.

20On that day I will summon my servant

Eliakim,* son of Hilkiah;e

21I will clothe him with your robe,

gird him with your sash,

confer on him your authority.

He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

and to the house of Judah.f

22I will place the key* of the House of David on his shoulder;

what he opens, no one will shut,

what he shuts, no one will open.g

23I will fix him as a peg in a firm place,

a seat of honor for his ancestral house;

24On him shall hang all the glory of his ancestral house:*

descendants and offspring,

all the little dishes, from bowls to jugs.