Read the Bible

¹ THE WORD OF THE VALLEY OF SION. ² The city is filled with shouting men: thy slain are not slain with swords, nor are thy dead those who have died in battle. ³ All thy princes have fled, and thy captives are tightly bound, and the mighty men in thee have fled far away. ⁴ Therefore I said, Let me alone, I will weep bitterly; labour not to comfort me for the breach of the daughter of my people. ⁵ For it is a day of trouble, and of destruction, and of treading down, and there is perplexity sent from the Lord of hosts: they wander in the valley of Sion; they wander from the least to the greatest on the mountains. ⁶ And the Elamites took their quivers, and there were men mounted on horses, and there was a gathering for battle. ⁷ And it shall be that thy choice valleys shall be filled with chariots, and horsemen shall block up thy gates.

⁸ And they shall uncover the gates of Juda, and they shall look in that day on the choice houses of the city. ⁹ And they shall uncover the secret places of the houses of the citadel of David: and they saw that they were many, and that one had turned the water of the old pool into the city; ¹⁰ and that they had pulled down the houses of Jerusalem, to fortify the wall of the city. ¹¹ And ye procured to yourselves water between the two walls within the ancient pool: but ye looked not to him that made it from the beginning, and regarded not him that created it. ¹² And the Lord, the Lord of hosts, called in that day for weeping, and lamentation, and baldness, and for girding with sackcloth: ¹³ but they engaged in joy and gladness, slaying calves, and killing sheep, so as to eat flesh, and drink wine; saying, Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die. ¹⁴ And these things are revealed in the ears of the Lord of hosts: for this sin shall not be forgiven you, until ye die.

¹⁵ Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Go into the chamber, to Somnas the treasurer, and say to him, Why art thou here? ¹⁶ and what hast thou to do here, that thou hast here hewn thyself a sepulchre, and madest thyself a sepulchre on high, and hast graven for thyself a dwelling in the rock? ¹⁷ Behold now, the Lord of hosts casts forth and will utterly destroy such a man, and will take away thy robe and thy glorious crown, ¹⁸ and will cast thee into a great and unmeasured land, and there thou shalt die: and he will bring thy fair chariot to shame, and the house of thy prince to be trodden down. ¹⁹ And thou shalt be removed from thy stewardship, and from thy place. ²⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Chelcias: ²¹ and I will put on him thy robe, and I will grant him thy crown with power, and I will give thy stewardship into his hands: and he shall be as a father to them that dwell in Jerusalem, and to them that dwell in Juda. ²² And I will give him the glory of David; and he shall rule, and there shall be none to speak against him: and I will give him the key of the house of David upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and there shall be none to shut; and he shall shut, and there shall be none to open. ²³ And I will make him a ruler in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne of his father’s house. ²⁴ And every one that is glorious in the house of his father shall trust in him, from the least to the greatest; and they shall depend upon him in that day. ²⁵ Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The man that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed and be taken away, and shall fall; and the glory that is upon him shall be utterly destroyed: for the Lord has spoken it.