Isaiah 22 Holman Christian Standard Bible

An Oracle against Jerusalem

22 An oracle^(A) against the Valley of Vision:^(B)

What’s the matter with you?
Why have all of you gone up to the rooftops?^(C)
²The noisy city, the jubilant town,^(D)
is filled with revelry.
Your dead did not die by the sword;
they were not killed in battle.
³All your rulers have fled together,
captured without a bow.
All your fugitives were captured together;
they had fled far away.
⁴Therefore I said,
“Look away from me! Let me weep bitterly!^(E)
Do not try to comfort me
about the destruction of my dear^[a] people.”
⁵For the Lord God of Hosts
had a day of tumult, trampling, and confusion^(F)
in the Valley of Vision—
people shouting^[b] and crying to the mountains;
⁶Elam took up a quiver
with chariots and horsemen,^[c]
and Kir^(G) uncovered the shield.
⁷Your best valleys were full of chariots,
and horsemen were positioned at the gates.
⁸He removed the defenses of Judah.

On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest.^(H) ⁹You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the city of David.^(I) You collected water from the lower pool.^(J) ¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem so that you could tear them down to fortify the wall. ¹¹You made a reservoir between the walls^(K) for the waters of the ancient pool,^(L) but you did not look to the One who made it, or consider the One who created it long ago.

¹²On that day the Lord God of Hosts
called for weeping,^(M) for wailing, for shaven heads,
and for the wearing of sackcloth.
¹³But look: joy and gladness,
butchering of cattle, slaughtering of sheep,
eating of meat, and drinking of wine—
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”^(N)
¹⁴The Lord of Hosts has directly revealed to me:^(O)
“This sin of yours will never^[d] be wiped out.”^(P)
The Lord God of Hosts has spoken.

An Oracle against Shebna

¹⁵The Lord God of Hosts said: “Go to Shebna,^(Q) that steward who is in charge of the palace, and say to him: ¹⁶What are you doing here? Who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here, carving your tomb on the height and cutting a crypt for yourself out of rock?^(R) ¹⁷Look, you strong man! The Lord is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, ¹⁸wind you up into a ball, and sling you into a wide land.^[e] There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will be—a disgrace to the house of your lord. ¹⁹I will remove you from your office; you will be ousted from your position.

²⁰“On that day I will call for my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.^(S) ²¹I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority into his hand, and he will be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.^(T) ²²I will place the key^(U) of the House of David on his shoulder; what he opens, no one can close; what he closes, no one can open.^(V) ²³I will drive him, like a peg, into a firm place. He will be a throne of honor for his father’s house. ²⁴They will hang on him the whole burden of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the small vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar. ²⁵On that day”—the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“the peg that was driven into a firm place will give way, be cut off, and fall, and the load on it will be destroyed.” Indeed, the Lord has spoken.

Footnotes

Isaiah 22:4 Lit of the daughter of my
Isaiah 22:5 Or Vision—a tearing down of a wall, or Vision—Kir raged; Hb obscure
Isaiah 22:6 Lit chariots of man
Isaiah 22:14 Lit will not until you die
Isaiah 22:18 Hb obscure