The Valley of Vision

1The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops?

2You that are full of stirs, a tumultuous city, joyous city: your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.

3All your rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in you are bound together, which have fled from far.

4Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.

5For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.

6And Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.

7And it shall come to pass, that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

8And he discovered the covering of Judah, and you did look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest.

9You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

10And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall.

11You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but you have not looked to the maker thereof, neither had respect to him that fashioned it long ago.

12And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

13And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.

14And it was revealed in my ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die, said the Lord GOD of hosts.

A Message for Shebna

15Thus said the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, get you to this treasurer, even to Shebna, which is over the house, and say,

16What have you here? and whom have you here, that you have hewed you out a sepulcher here, as he that hews him out a sepulcher on high, and that engraves an habitation for himself in a rock?

17Behold, the LORD will carry you away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover you.

18He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country: there shall you die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your lord's house.

19And I will drive you from your station, and from your state shall he pull you down.

20And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:

21And I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit your government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

22And the key of the house of David will I lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

23And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.

24And they shall hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. 25In that day, said the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was on it shall be cut off: for the LORD has spoken it.