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¹ The oracle on the valley of vision, - What aileth thee, then, That thou art wholly gone up to the house-tops?² With tumults, art thou filled, thou citadel in commotion! city exultant! Thy slain, are Not the slain, of the sword, Nor the dead in battle.³ All thy ruler, having fled, together, by the bow, are taken captive: All found in thee have been taken captive, together, Far away, have they fled.⁴ For this cause, I said - Look away from me, Bitterly, will I weep, - Do not press to comfort me,⁵ For the ruin of the daughter of my people. For a day of confusion and downtreading and perplexity, pertaineth to My Lord, Yahweh of hosts, in the valley of vision, an undermining of walls, and a crying for help to the mountain.⁶ Yea, Elam, beareth the quiver, With trams of men, and horsemen, - And, Kir, hath uncovered the shield.⁷ And it hath come to pass that the choice of thy vales, are full of chariots; Yea, the horsemen, have set themselves, in array, at the gate.

⁸ Then removed he the veil of Judah, - Yea thou didst peer on that day, into the armoury of the forest-house;⁹ And the breaches in the city of David, ye beheld for they were many, - So ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool;¹⁰ And the houses of Jerusalem, ye counted, - And brake down the houses, to fortify the wall;¹¹ And a reservoir, ye made between the two walls, for the waters of the ancient pool, - And had no regard unto him that made it, Nor unto him that formed it long ago, had ye respect.¹² And, when My Lord Yahweh of hosts called in that day, - for weeping, and for lamentation, and for shaving bare and for girding with sackcloth,¹³ Then lo! joy and rejoicing, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, - Let us eat and drink, For to-morrow, we may die!¹⁴ Therefore did Yahweh reveal himself in mine ears. Surely there shall be no propitiatory-covering put over this iniquity for you until ye die, Saith My Lord Yahweh of hosts.

¹⁵ Thus, said My Lord Yahweh, of hosts, Come go in unto this steward, Unto Shebna, who is over the house:¹⁶ What doest thou here? And whom hast thou here? That thou hast hewn for thyself here a sepulchre, - As one hewing on high his sepulchre, Cutting out in the cliff a habitation for himself?¹⁷ Lo! Yahweh, is about to hurl thee, with a hurl, O mighty man, - And roll thee with a roll;¹⁸ He will, toss, thee, with a toss, like a ball, into a country wide on both hands, - There, shalt thou die, And there shall thy glorious chariots be the contempt of the house of thy lord.¹⁹ Thus will I thrust thee out from thine office, - And from thy station, shall one tear thee down.²⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, That I will call for my servant, for Eliakim son of Hilkiah,²¹ And will clothe him with thy tunic And with thy girdle, will I gird him, And thine authority, will I deliver into his hand, - So shall he become a father To the inhabitant of Jerusalem and To the house of Judah.²² And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder, - And he shall open and none shall shut, And shut and none shall open;²³ And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, - And he shall become a throne of glory, to the house of his father;²⁴ And they shall hang upon him all the weight of his fathers house - The offshoots and the side-twigs - All the small vessels, Both the cups and all the jugs²⁵ In that day, - Declareth Yahweh of hosts Shall the peg, give way, that was fastened in a sure place, - Yea it shall be cut off and fall And the burden that was upon it shall perish, For, Yahweh, hath spoken!