Isaiah 22:17

Easy-to-Read Version

"What a big man you are! But the Lord will crush you. He will roll you into a small ball and throw you far away into the open arms of another country, and there you will die. "You are very proud of your chariots. But in that faraway land, your new ruler will have better chariots. And your chariots will not look important in his palace.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Look, you strong man! The Lord is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you,

Hebrew Names Version
Behold, the LORD, like a [strong] man, will hurl you away violently; yes, he will wrap you up closely.

King James Version
Behold, the Lord will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee.

English Standard Version
Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you

New American Standard Bible
'Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you violently, you strong man. And He is about to grasp you firmly

New Century Version
Look, mighty one! The Lord will throw you away. He will take firm hold of you

Amplified Bible
'Listen carefully, the LORD is about to hurl you away violently, O man; And He is about to grasp you firmly

World English Bible
Behold, Yahweh, like a [strong] man, will hurl you away violently; yes, he will wrap you up closely.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Beholde, the Lord wil carie thee away with a great captiuitie, and will surely couer thee.

Legacy Standard Bible
Behold, Yahweh is about to hurl you headlong, O man.And He is about to grasp you firmly

Berean Standard Bible
Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you,

Contemporary English Version
You may be powerful, but the Lord is about to snatch you up and throw you away.

Complete Jewish Bible
Look, strong man! Adonai is about to throw you out! He will grab you,

Darby Translation
Behold, Jehovah will hurl thee with the force of a mighty man, and will cover thee entirely.

George Lamsa Translation
Behold, O man, the LORD will surely cast you away, and will surely forsake you.

Good News Translation
You may be important, but the Lord will pick you up and throw you away.

Lexham English Bible
Look! Yahweh is about to really hurl you, man! And he is about to grasp you firmly;

Literal Translation
Behold, Jehovah hurls you with a hurling, O man, and grasps you with a grasping.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Beholde the LORDE shal cast the out by violence, he will deck the of another fashion, and put vpon the a straunge clothe.

American Standard Version
Behold, Jehovah, like a strong man, will hurl thee away violently; yea, he will wrap thee up closely.

Bible in Basic English
See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently away, gripping you with force,

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, the LORD will hurl thee up and down with a man's throw; yea, He will wind thee round and round;

King James Version (1611)
Behold; the Lord will cary thee away with a mightie captiuitie, and will surely couer thee.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Beholde O thou man, the Lorde shal cary thee away into captiuitie, and shall surely couer thee with confusion.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
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,

English Revised Version
Behold, the LORD will hurl thee away violently as a strong man; yea, he will wrap thee up closely.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo! the Lord schal make thee to be borun out, as a kapoun is borun out, and as a cloth, so he shal reise thee.

Update Bible Version
Look, Yahweh will hurl you away violently, O [prominent] man, and he will wrap you up closely.

Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, the LORD will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee.

New English Translation
Look, the Lord will throw you far away, you mere man! He will wrap you up tightly.

New King James Version
Indeed, the LORD will throw you away violently, O mighty man, And will surely seize you.

New Living Translation
For the Lord is about to hurl you away, mighty man. He is going to grab you,

New Life Bible
See, the Lord will throw you away without pity, O you strong man. He will take a strong hold of you

New Revised Standard
The Lord is about to hurl you away violently, my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Lo! Yahweh, is about to hurl thee, with a hurl, O mighty man, - And roll thee with a roll;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold the Lord will cause thee to be carried away, as a cock is carried away, and he will lift thee up as a garment.

Revised Standard Version
Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you,

Young's Literal Translation
Lo, Jehovah is casting thee up and down, A casting up and down, O mighty one,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you headlong, O man. And He is about to grasp you firmly

Contextual Overview

¹⁵ The Lord God All-Powerful told me to go to Shebna, the palace manager, ¹⁶ and say this: "What are you doing here? None of your relatives are buried here, are they? Then what right do you have to prepare a tomb for yourself in this high place? Why are you cutting a tomb out of this rock? ¹⁷"What a big man you are! But the Lord will crush you. He will roll you into a small ball and throw you far away into the open arms of another country, and there you will die. "You are very proud of your chariots. But in that faraway land, your new ruler will have better chariots. And your chariots will not look important in his palace. ¹⁹ I will force you out of your position here. Your new leader will take you away from your important job. ²⁰ At that time I will call for my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. ²¹ I will take your robe and put it on him. I will give him your scepter. I will give him the important job you have, and he will be like a father to the people of Jerusalem and Judah's family. ²² "I will put the key to David's house around his neck. If he opens a door, no one will be able to close it. If he closes a door, no one will be able to open it. ²³ He will be like a favorite chair in his father's house. I will make him like a strong peg in a solid board. ²⁴ All the honored and important things of his father's house will hang on him. All the adults and little children will depend on him. They will be like little dishes and big water bottles hanging on him." ²⁵ The Lord All-Powerful said, "At that time the peg that is now in the solid board will get weak and break. It will fall to the ground, and everything hanging on it will be destroyed. Then everything I said in this message will happen. It will happen because the Lord said it would."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

will carry: etc. or, who covered thee with an excellent covering, and clothed thee gorgeously, shall surely violently turn, etc. Isaiah 22:18

a mighty captivity: Heb. the captivity of a man

cover: Esther 7:8, Job 9:24, Jeremiah 14:3

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 22:26 - General Ezekiel 21:24 - ye shall

Cross-References

Genesis 12:2
I will build a great nation from you. I will bless you and make your name famous. People will use your name to bless other people.

Genesis 13:16
I will make your people so many that they will be like the dust of the earth. If people could count all the particles of dust on earth, they could count your people.

Genesis 15:5
Then God led Abram outside and said, "Look at the sky. See the many stars. There are so many you cannot count them. Your family will be like that."

Genesis 17:6
I will give you many descendants. New nations and kings will come from you.

Genesis 22:1
After these things God decided to test Abraham's faith. God said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Yes!"

Genesis 22:2
Then God said, "Take your son to the land of Moriah and kill your son there as a sacrifice for me. This must be Isaac, your only son, the one you love. Use him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which mountain."

Genesis 22:8
Abraham answered, "God himself is providing the lamb for the sacrifice, my son." So both Abraham and his son went together to that place.

Genesis 22:9
When they came to the place where God told them to go, Abraham built an altar. He carefully laid the wood on the altar. Then he tied up his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Genesis 22:10
Then Abraham reached for his knife to kill his son.

Genesis 22:13
Then Abraham noticed a ram whose horns were caught in a bush. So Abraham went and took the ram. He offered it, instead of his son, as a sacrifice to God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, the Lord will carry thee away with a mighty captivity,.... Or with the captivity of a man; so the Targum, of a mighty man, Sennacherib king of Assyria; who, as the Jews say z, when he went from Jerusalem, upon the rumour of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia coming against him, carried away Shebna and his company, as with an inundation: or as a man is carried captive, whose captivity is harder, and more severe and cruel, than a woman's, as the Rabbins a observe; a woman finding more mercy in captivity usually than a man does. Some of the Jewish writers render the word "geber" a cock, as they do elsewhere; and gloss it, as a cock is carried away, and goes from place to place b; and so the Vulgate Latin version,

"behold, the Lord shall cause thee to be carried away, as a cock is carried away;''

but it seems best, with Aben Ezra and Kimchi, to read the word "man" in the vocative case; the Lord will carry thee away, "O man", O mighty man c; as mighty a man as thou art in office, in power, in riches, God shall carry thee away with the greatest ease imaginable:

and will surely cover thee: or, "in covering cover thee"; with confusion, as the Targum. Jarchi says the word has the signification of flying; and so interprets it, he shall cause thee to fly like a bird into captivity; that is, very speedily and swiftly. The Rabbins gather from hence that Shebna was struck with leprosy, because the leper was obliged to put a covering upon his upper lip; and this sense is embraced by Grotius; but the allusion seems to be to persons in disgrace, or condemned to die, whose faces used to be covered, Esther 7:8.

z Seder Olam Rabba, c. 23. p. 64. a T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 26. 2. b Jarchi in loc. Vajikra Rabba, sect. 5. fol. 150. 2. c גבר "O vir poteus", Grotius; "O tu heros", Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, the Lord will carry thee away - Of the historical fact here referred to we have no other information. To what place he was to be carried, we know not. It is probable, however, that it was to Assyria.

With a mighty captivity - Hebrew, גבר geber - ‘Of a man,’ or perhaps, ‘O man.’ If it means ‘the captivity of a man,’ the sense is, a strong, irresistible, mighty captivity where the word “man” is emphatic, and means such as a mighty man would make. Compare Job 38:3 : ‘Gird up now thy loins like a man.’ The margin reads this, he ‘who covered thee with an excellent covering, and clothed thee gorgeously, shall surely turn and toss thee.’ But the text conveys more nearly the idea of the Hebrew word, which denotes the action of “casting away, or throwing” from one as a man throws a stone. See the same use of the word טול ṭûl in 1Sa 18:2; 1 Samuel 20:33; Jeremiah 17:13; Jeremiah 22:26, Jeremiah 22:28; Jonah 1:5, Jonah 1:12, Jonah 1:16. “And will surely cover thee.” ‘Thy face,’ says Lowth, for this was the condition of mourners. The Chaldee is, ‘Shall cover thee with confusion.’ So Vitringa, who supposes that it means that although Shebna was endeavoring to rear a monument that should perpetuate his name and that of his family, God would cover them with ignominy, and reduce them to their primitive, obscure, and humble condition.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 22:17. Cover thee — That is, thy face. This was the condition of mourners in general, and particularly of condemned persons. See Esther 6:12; Esther 7:8.