The Preacher's Bible

The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

²You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. ³All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away. ⁴Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, Jehovah of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.” ⁶Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. ⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. ⁸He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. ⁹You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. ¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who planned it long ago.

¹²In that day, the Lord, Jehovah of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; ¹³and behold, there is joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.” ¹⁴Jehovah of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, Jehovah of Armies.

¹⁵The Lord, Jehovah of Armies says, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, ¹⁶‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!” ¹⁷Behold, Jehovah will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly. ¹⁸He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you disgrace of your lord’s house. ¹⁹I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.

²⁰It will happen 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 belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. ²²I will lay the key of David’s house on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open. ²³I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father’s house. ²⁴They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers. ²⁵“In that day,” says Jehovah of Armies, “the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for Jehovah has spoken it.”