Isaiah 22

A Message About Jerusalem

1 This is the message about the Valley of Vision: What is going on with you all up on the rooftops shouting,

2 The city’s full of noise and chaos, a town that used to celebrate, now crying out. Your people did not die fighting, they got taken without a sword being drawn.

3 All your leaders ran away together, but they got captured without a fight. The ones who tried to escape got caught, too.

4 That is why I said, “Leave me alone. Let me cry bitter tears. Do not try to comfort me while my people are being destroyed.”

5 The Lord God of Armies has brought a day of panic, trampling, and confusion in the Valley of Vision, walls are falling, and people are crying for help in the mountains.

6 Elam is there with quivers of arrows, chariots, and horsemen. Kir’s holding up shields, ready to fight.

7 Your best valleys are full of chariots, and soldiers are lined up right at the city gates.

8 God has uncovered Judah’s defenses. You looked that day to the weapons in the House of the Forest.

9 You saw the city of David had cracks in its walls, so you stored up water from the lower pool.

10 You counted the houses in Jerusalem and tore some down to strengthen the wall.

11 You built a reservoir between the two walls for the old pool’s water, but you never looked to the One who made it. You did not pay attention to the One who planned it long ago.

God Calls for Repentance, but the People Party Instead

12 The Lord God of Armies called you to weep and mourn, to shave your heads and wear sackcloth.

13 But instead, you threw a party, eating meat, drinking wine, saying, “Forget it, let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we die!”

14 The Lord of Armies said, “Your sin will not be wiped away until you die,” says the Lord God of Armies.

The Downfall of Shebna

15 This is what the Lord God of Armies says: “Go to that palace administrator, Shebna, the one over the royal household, and tell him this.”

16 “What do you think you are doing here, carving yourself a tomb high up in the rock?”

17 “Watch out, the Lord is about to grab you tight and throw you out like a ball into a wide, empty land.”

18 “There you will die, and your fancy chariots, your pride, will crash with you, disgrace to your master’s house.”

19 “I will remove you from your position and tear you down from your office.”

The Rise of Eliakim

20 “In that day, I will call My servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.”

21 “I will dress him in your robe, put your sash around him, and hand him your authority. He will be like a father to the people of Jerusalem and Judah.”

22 “I will give him the key to the house of David, what he opens, no one can shut; what he shuts, no one can open.”

23 “I will make him like a peg driven deep into a solid place, he will bring honor to his family.”

24 “All the glory of his family will hang on him, the offspring, the branches, all the small vessels, from bowls to jars.”

25 “But the Lord Almighty says, ‘That peg, once driven in firmly, will eventually come loose; it will fall, and everything hanging on it will collapse.’ The Lord has spoken.”