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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, the LORD 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 Yehudah; 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 Yerushalayim, 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 did you have respect for him who purposed it long ago. ¹² In that day did the Lord, the LORD 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 The LORD of Hosts revealed himself in my ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord, the LORD of Hosts.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shevna, who is over the house, [and say], ¹⁶ "What are you doing here? and who has you here, that you have hewed out a tomb here? Cutting him out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!" ¹⁷ Behold, the LORD, 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 Elyakim the son of Hilkiyah: 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 Yerushalayim, and to the house of Yehudah. 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 the LORD 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 the LORD has spoken it.