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The Valley of Vision

¹ This is an oracle concerning the Valley of Vision: What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops,² O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.³ All your rulers have fled together, captured without a bow. All your fugitives were captured together, having fled to a distant place.⁴ Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”⁵ For the Lord GOD of Hosts has set a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision—of breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains.⁶ Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovers the shield.⁷ Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the gates.

⁸ He has uncovered the defenses of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest.⁹ You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool.¹⁰ You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall.¹¹ You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or consider Him who planned it long ago.¹² On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.¹³ But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”¹⁴ The LORD of Hosts has revealed in my hearing: “Until your dying day, this sin of yours will never be atoned for,” says the Lord GOD of Hosts.

A Message for Shebna

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord GOD of Hosts: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace:¹⁶ What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here, to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?¹⁷ Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you,¹⁸ roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master.¹⁹ I will depose you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.²⁰ On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.²¹ I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.²² I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. What he opens, no one can shut; what he shuts, no one can open.²³ I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.²⁴ So they will hang on him the whole burden of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the lesser vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar.²⁵ In that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and fall, and the load upon it will be cut down.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.