The Valley of Vision: Jerusalem's Fall and Leadership Change
Isaiah 22:1-25
1The oracle concerning the Valley of Vision: what concerns you, that you have all gone up to the roofs?2A city full of shouts, a roaring, jubilant town; your slain were not slain by the sword and did not die in battle.3All your chiefs fled together far from the bow; they were bound; all who were found among you were bound together and fled from afar.4Therefore I said, look away from me; I will weep bitterly; do not try to comfort me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.5For the Lord GOD of Hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision, destroying a wall and a cry toward the mountain.6Elam takes up the quiver in chariots with men and horsemen, and Kir uncovers the shield.7Your choicest valleys are filled with chariots, and horsemen are posted at the gate.8He removed the covering of Judah; on that day you looked toward the weapons of the house of the forest.9You saw that the breaches of the city of David were many; you collected the waters of the lower pool.10You counted the houses of Jerusalem; you tore down houses to fortify the wall.11You made a reservoir between the walls for the water of the old pool, but you did not look to the one who made it or see the one who formed it long ago.12On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and for the wearing of sackcloth.13But there was rejoicing and joy, the slaughtering of cattle and the killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.14The LORD of Hosts has revealed in my hearing: this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die, says the Lord GOD of Hosts.15Thus says the Lord GOD of Hosts: go, come to this steward, to Shebna who is over the household.16What have you here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting your tomb on the height and carving a dwelling for yourself in the rock?17Behold, the LORD is casting you away, a casting of a mighty man, and grasping you firmly.18He will surely wrap you and toss you like a ball into a broad land; there you shall die, and there the chariots of your glory will become the dishonor of your lord's house.19I will thrust you from your office, and from your station he will pull you down.20On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.21I will clothe him with your tunic and bind your sash firmly on him; I will give your authority into his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.22I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, and when he shuts, no one shall open.23I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor for his father's house.24They will hang on him all the honor of his father's house, the offspring and the offshoots, all the lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.25On that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, the peg fastened in a sure place will be removed; it will be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.