CHAPTER 22
This is an oracle
concerning the Valley
of Vision:
What
ails you now,
that
you have all
gone up
to the rooftops,
O city
of commotion,
O town
of revelry?
Your slain
did not
die
by the sword,
nor were they
killed
in battle.
All
your rulers
have fled
together,
captured
without a bow.
All
your fugitives
were captured
together,
having fled
to a distant place.
Therefore
I said,
“Turn away
from me,
let me weep
bitterly!
Do not
try
to console me
over
the destruction
of the daughter
of my people.”
For
the Lord
GOD
of Hosts
has set a day
of tumult
and trampling
and confusion
in the Valley
of Vision—
of breaking
down the walls
and crying
to
the mountains.
He has uncovered
the defenses
of Judah.
On that
day
you looked
to
the weapons
in the House
of the Forest.
You saw
that
there were many
breaches
in the walls of the City
of David.
You collected
water
from the lower
pool.
You built
a reservoir
between
the walls
for the waters
of the ancient
pool,
but you did not
look
to
the One who made it,
or consider
Him who planned
it long ago.
On that
day
the Lord
GOD
of Hosts
called
for weeping
and wailing,
for shaven heads
and the wearing
of sackcloth.
But look,
there is joy
and gladness,
butchering
of cattle
and slaughtering
of sheep,
eating
of meat
and drinking
of wine:
“Let us eat
and drink,
for
tomorrow
we die!”
The LORD
of Hosts
has revealed
in my hearing:
“Until
your dying day,
this
sin
of yours will never
be atoned for,”
says
the Lord
GOD
of Hosts.
What
are you doing here,
and who
authorized you
to carve out
a tomb
for yourself
here,
to chisel
your tomb
in the height
and cut
your resting place
in the rock?
roll you
into a ball,
and sling you into
a wide
land.
There
you will die,
and there
your glorious
chariots will remain—
a disgrace
to the house
of your master.
I will clothe
him with your robe
and tie your sash
around him.
I will put
your authority
in his hand,
and he will be
a father
to the dwellers
of Jerusalem
and to the house
of Judah.
I will place
on
his shoulder
the key
of the house
of David.
What he opens,
no
one can shut;
what he shuts,
no
one can open.
I will drive him
like a peg
into a firm
place,
and he will be
a throne
of glory
for the house
of his father.
So they will hang
on
him the whole
burden
of his father’s
house:
the descendants
and the offshoots—
all
the lesser
vessels,
from bowls
to
every kind
of jar.
In that
day,
declares
the LORD
of Hosts,
the peg
driven
into a firm
place
will give way;
it will be sheared off
and fall,
and the load
upon it
will be cut down.”
Indeed,
the LORD
has spoken.