[1] The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are
wholly gone up to the housetops? [2] You that are full of shouting, a
tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword,
neither are they dead in battle. [3] All your rulers fled away together,
they were bound by the archers; all who were found of you were bound
together; they fled afar off. [4] Therefore said I, Look away from me, I
will weep bitterly; don`t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the
daughter of my people. [5] For it is a day of confusion, and of treading
down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, in the valley of
vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains. [6]
Elam bore the quiver, with chariots of men [and] horsemen; and Kir
uncovered the shield. [7] It happened that your choicest valleys were full
of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. [8] He
took away the covering of Judah; and you did look in that day to the armor
in the house of the forest. [9] You saw the breaches of the city of David,
that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower
pool; [10] and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the
houses to fortify the wall; [11] you made also a reservoir between the two
walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn`t look to him who had
done this, neither had you respect to him who purposed it long ago. [12] In
that day did the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning,
and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: [13] and behold, joy and
gladness, killing oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine:
let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. [14] Yahweh of Hosts
revealed himself in my ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you
until you die, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts. [15] Thus says the Lord,
Yahweh of Hosts, Go, get you to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over
the house, [and say], [16] "What do you here? and whom has you here, that
you have hewed you out here a tomb? Cutting him out a tomb on high,
chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!" [17] Behold, Yahweh, like
a [strong] man, will hurl you away violently; yes, he will wrap you up
closely. [18] He will surely wind you round and round, [and toss you] like
a ball into a large country; there shall you die, and there shall be the
chariots of your glory, you shame of your lord`s house. [19] I will thrust
you from your office; and from your station shall you be pulled down. [20]
It shall happen in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of
Hilkiah: [21] and I will cloth him with your robe, and strengthen him with
your belt, and I will commit your government into his hand; and he shall be
a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. [22]
The key of the house of David will I lay on his shoulder; and he shall
open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. [23] I
will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of
glory to his father`s house. [24] They shall hang on him all the glory of
his father`s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from
the cups even to all the pitchers. [25] In that day, says Yahweh of hosts,
shall the nail that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it shall be
hewn down, and fall; and the burden that was on it shall be cut off; for
Yahweh has spoken it.
