1 THE MOURNFUL, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning the Valley of Vision: What do you mean [I wonder] that you have all gone up to the housetops, 2 You who are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous and exultant city? [O Jerusalem] your slain warriors have not met [a glorious] death with the sword or in battle. 3 All your [military] leaders have fled together; without the bow [which they had thrown away] they have been taken captive and bound by the archers. All of you who were found were bound together [as captives], though they had fled far away. 4 Therefore I [Isaiah] said, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly. Do not hasten and try to comfort me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of discomfiture and of tumult, of treading down, of confusion and perplexity from the Lord God of hosts in the Valley of Vision, a day of breaking down the walls and of crying to the mountains. 6 And [in my vision I saw] Elam take up the quiver, with troops in chariots, infantry, and horsemen; and Kir [with Elam subject to Assyria] uncovered the shield. 7 And it came to pass that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their station [and set themselves in offensive array at the gate of Jerusalem]. [Fulfilled in II Chron. 32; Isa. 36.]
8 Then [God] removed the protective covering of Judah; and you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest [the king's armory] in that day. 9 You saw that the breaches [in the walls] of the City of David [the citadel of Zion] were many; [since the water supply was still defective] you collected [within the city's walls] the waters of the Lower Pool. 10 And you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses [to get materials] to fortify the [city] wall. 11 You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the Maker of it, nor did you recognize Him Who planned it long ago.
12 And in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping and mourning, to the shaving off of all your hair [in humiliation] and to the girding with sackcloth. 13 But instead, see the pleasure and mirth, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, [with the idea] Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die! 14 And the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in my ears [as He said], Surely this unatoned sin shall not be purged from you until [you are punished--and the punishment will be] death, says the Lord God of hosts.
15 Come, go to this [contemptible] steward and treasurer, to Shebna, who is over the house [but who is presumptuous enough to be building himself a tomb among those of the mighty, a tomb worthy of a king], and say to him, 16 What business have you here? And whom have you entombed here, that you have the right to hew out for yourself a tomb here? He hews out a sepulcher for himself on the height! He carves out a dwelling for himself in the rock! 17 Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man; yes, He will take tight hold of you and He will surely cover you [with shame]. 18 He will surely roll you up in a bundle [Shebna] and toss you like a ball into a large country; there you will die and there will be your splendid chariots, you disgrace to your master's house! 19 And I will thrust you from your office, and from your station will you be pulled down. 20 And in that day I will call My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 21 And I will clothe him with your robe and will bind your girdle on him and will commit your authority to his hand; he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And the key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; he shall open and no one shall shut, he shall shut and no one shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg or nail in a firm place; and he will become a throne of honor and glory to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the honor and the whole weight of [responsibility for] his father's house: the offspring and issue [of the family, high and low], every small vessel, from the cups even to all the flasks and big bulging bottles. 25 In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the nail or peg that was fastened into the sure place shall give way and be moved and be hewn down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for the Lord has spoken it.