An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem
The aoracle concerning bthe valley of vision.
What do you mean that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,
2 you who are full of shoutings,
tumultuous city, aexultant town?
Your slain are bnot slain with the sword
or dead in battle.
3 aAll your leaders have fled together;
without the bow they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured,
though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
alet me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 aFor the Lord God of hosts has ba day
of tumult and ctrampling and dconfusion
in ethe valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
and a shouting to the mountains.
6 And aElam bore the quiver
with chariots and horsemen,
and bKir uncovered the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
8 He has taken away athe covering of Judah.
In that day you looked to bthe weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that athe breaches of the city of David were many. bYou collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 aYou made a reservoir between bthe two walls for the water of cthe old pool. But dyou did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.
12 In that day athe Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for bbaldness and cwearing sackcloth;
13 and behold, joy and gladness,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine.
a“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
14 The Lord of hosts ahas revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely bthis iniquity will not be atoned for you cuntil you die,”
says the Lord God of hosts.
15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to aShebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, athat you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you bwho cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. aHe will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be ayour glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house. 19 aI will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and aI will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be ba father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place aon his shoulder bthe key of the house of David. cHe shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him alike a peg in a secure place, and he will become ba throne of honor to his father’s house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, athe peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”