1An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision: What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops,
2you who are full of tumult, a noisy town, an exultant city? Your slain were not slain by the sword, nor did they die in battle.
3All your rulers fled together; without a bow they were captured. All who were found among you were captured together, though they had fled far away.
4Therefore I said, “Look away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not press to comfort me over the devastation of the daughter of my people.”
5For it is a day of tumult and trampling and confusion belonging to the Lord Yahweh of hosts, in the Valley of Vision — a battering down of walls and a crying out to the mountain.
6Elam bore the quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
7And it happened that the choicest of your valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stand at the gate.
8He removed the covering of Judah, and on that day you looked to the weaponry of the House of the Forest.
9You saw that the breaches of the City of David were many, and you collected the waters of the lower pool.
10You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you tore down the houses to fortify the wall.
11And you made a reservoir between the two walls for the waters of the old pool. But you did not look to the one who made it, nor did you regard the one who fashioned it long ago.
12On that day the Lord Yahweh of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
13But behold — joy and gladness, slaughtering cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
14Yahweh of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord Yahweh of hosts.
15Thus says the Lord Yahweh of hosts: Go, come to this steward, to Shebna who is over the household,
16“What have you here, and whom have you here, that you have hewn out for yourself here a tomb — hewing his tomb on the height, carving out a dwelling for himself in the rock?
17Behold, Yahweh is about to hurl you away with a mighty hurling, O man, and grasp you firmly.
18He will surely wind you up tightly like a ball into a land broad on both sides. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will be — the disgrace of your master’s house!
19I will thrust you from your office, and from your station he will pull you down.
20And it will be on that day that I will call for my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
21I will clothe him with your tunic, and with your sash I will strengthen him, and your authority I will give into his hand. He will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22And I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder; he will open, and none will shut; he will shut, and none will open.
23I will drive him in as a peg in a firm place, and he will become a throne of glory for his father’s house.
24And on him they will hang all the glory of his father’s house: the offspring and the offshoots, all the small vessels, from the vessels of the bowls even to all the vessels of the jars.
25On that day, declares Yahweh of hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off — for Yahweh has spoken.
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