Isaiah 22

Revised Geneva Translation

22 The burden of the Valley of Vision. What ails you now, that you have wholly gone up to the housetops?

² You who are full of noise, a city full of brutes, a joyous city. Your slain men shall not be slain with sword, nor die in battle.

³ All your princes shall flee together from the bow. They shall be bound. All who shall be found in you, who have fled from far, shall be bound together.

⁴ Therefore I said, “Turn away from me. I will weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵ “For it is a day of trouble, and of ruin, and of perplexity—by the LORD God of Hosts, in the Valley of Vision, breaking down the city—and of crying to the mountains.”

⁶ And Elam bore the quiver in a man’s chariot with horsemen. And Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷ And your chief valleys were full of chariots. And the horsemen set themselves in array against the gate.

⁸ And he uncovered the covering of Judah. And on that day, you looked to the armor of the house of the forest.

⁹ And you have seen the breaches of the City of David. For they were many. And you gathered the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰ And you numbered the houses of Jerusalem. And you have broken down the houses to fortify the wall,

¹¹ and have also made a ditch between the two walls for the waters of the old pool, and have not looked to its Maker, nor had respect to Him Who formed it of old.

¹² And on that day, the LORD God of Hosts called for weeping and mourning and for baldness and girding with sackcloth.

¹³ and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine, eating and drinking. For tomorrow, we shall die.

¹⁴ And it was declared in the Ears of the LORD of Hosts. “Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you, till you die,” says the LORD God of Hosts.

¹⁵ Thus says the LORD God of Hosts: “Go! Get to that steward, to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,

¹⁶ “What do you have here and whom do you have here that you should carve yourself out a sepulcher here, as he who carves out his sepulcher in a high place, or that chisels a habitation for himself in a rock?

¹⁷ “Behold, the LORD will carry you away. The mighty man will surely cover you.

¹⁸ “He will surely roll and turn you, like a ball in a large country. There you shall die. And there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your lord’s house.

¹⁹ “So I will drive you from your station. And out of your dwelling will he destroy you.

²⁰ “And on that day, I will call My servant, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah.

²¹ “And with your garments I will clothe him. And with your belt I will strengthen him. Your power I will also commit into his hand. And he shall be a father of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the House of Judah.

²² “And I will lay the key of the House of David upon his shoulder. So he shall open, and no man shall shut. And he shall shut, and no man shall open.

²³ “And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place. And he shall be the throne of glory for his father’s House.

²⁴ “And they shall hang all the glory of his father’s House upon him, of the nephews and posterity, and all small vessels, from the vessels of the cups to all the instruments of music.

²⁵ “On that day,” says the LORD of Hosts, “shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place depart and shall be broken and fall. And the burden that was upon it shall be cut off. For the LORD has spoken it.”