NIV
Isaiah 22
- 1<pb/>A prophecy against the Valley of Vision: <pb/><t>What troubles you now,</t> <t>that you have all gone up on the roofs,</t>
- 2<t>you town so full of commotion,</t> <t>you city of tumult and revelry?</t> <t>Your slain were not killed by the sword,</t> <t>nor did they die in battle.</t>
- 3<t>All your leaders have fled together;</t> <t>they have been captured without using the bow.</t> <t>All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,</t> <t>having fled while the enemy was still far away.</t>
- 4<t>Therefore I said, “Turn away from me;</t> <t>let me weep bitterly.</t> <t>Do not try to console me</t> <t>over the destruction of my people.” <pb/></t>
- 5<t>The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day</t> <t>of tumult and trampling and terror</t> <t>in the Valley of Vision,</t> <t>a day of battering down walls</t> <t>and of crying out to the mountains.</t>
- 6<t>Elam takes up the quiver,</t> <t>with her charioteers and horses;</t> <t>Kir uncovers the shield.</t>
- 7<t>Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,</t> <t>and horsemen are posted at the city gates. <pb/></t>
- 8<t>The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah,</t> <t>and you looked in that day</t> <t>to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.</t>
- 9<t>You saw that the walls of the City of David</t> <t>were broken through in many places;</t> <t>you stored up water</t> <t>in the Lower Pool.</t>
- 10<t>You counted the buildings in Jerusalem</t> <t>and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.</t>
- 11<t>You built a reservoir between the two walls</t> <t>for the water of the Old Pool,</t> <t>but you did not look to the One who made it,</t> <t>or have regard for the One who planned it long ago. <pb/></t>
- 12<t>The Lord, the LORD Almighty,</t> <t>called you on that day</t> <t>to weep and to wail,</t> <t>to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.</t>
- 13<t>But see, there is joy and revelry,</t> <t>slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,</t> <t>eating of meat and drinking of wine!</t> <t>“Let us eat and drink,” you say,</t> <t>“for tomorrow we die!”</t>
- 14<pb/>The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
- 15<pb/>This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: <pb/><t>“Go, say to this steward,</t> <t>to Shebna the palace administrator:</t>
- 16<t>What are you doing here and who gave you permission</t> <t>to cut out a grave for yourself here,</t> <t>hewing your grave on the height</t> <t>and chiseling your resting place in the rock? <pb/></t>
- 17<t>“Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you</t> <t>and hurl you away, you mighty man.</t>
- 18<t>He will roll you up tightly like a ball</t> <t>and throw you into a large country.</t> <t>There you will die</t> <t>and there the chariots you were so proud of</t> <t>will become a disgrace to your master’s house.</t>
- 19<t>I will depose you from your office,</t> <t>and you will be ousted from your position.</t>
- 20<pb/>“In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
- 21I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah.
- 22I 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.
- 23I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat<f>[50]</f> of honor for the house of his father.
- 24All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.
- 25<pb/>“In that day,” declares the LORD Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The LORD has spoken.