An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem

¹The voracle concerning wthe valley of vision.

What do you mean that you have gone up,

all of you, to the housetops,

²you who are full of shoutings,

tumultuous city, xexultant town?

Your slain are ynot slain with the sword

or dead in battle.

³zAll your leaders have fled together;

without the bow they were captured.

All of you who were found were captured,

though they had fled far away.

⁴Therefore I said:

“Look away from me;

alet me weep bitter tears;

do not labor to comfort me

concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵bFor the Lord God of hosts has ca day

of tumult and dtrampling and econfusion

in wthe valley of vision,

a battering down of walls

and a shouting to the mountains.

⁶And fElam bore the quiver

with chariots and horsemen,

and gKir uncovered the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,

and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.

⁸He has taken away hthe covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to ithe weapons of the House of the Forest, ⁹and you saw that jthe breaches of the city of David were many. kYou collected the waters of the lower pool, ¹⁰and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹kYou made a reservoir between lthe two walls for the water of mthe old pool. But nyou did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

¹²In that day othe Lord God of hosts

called for weeping and mourning,

for pbaldness and qwearing sackcloth;

¹³and behold, joy and gladness,

killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,

eating flesh and drinking wine.

r“Let us eat and drink,

for tomorrow we die.”

¹⁴The Lord of hosts shas revealed himself in my ears:

“Surely tthis iniquity will not be atoned for you uuntil you die,”

says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to vShebna, who is over the household, and say to him: ¹⁶What have you to do here, and whom have you here, wthat you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you xwho cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? ¹⁷Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. yHe will seize firm hold on you ¹⁸and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be zyour glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. ¹⁹aI will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. ²⁰In that day I will call my servant bEliakim the son of Hilkiah, ²¹and bI will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be ca father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²²And I will place don his shoulder ethe key of the house of David. fHe shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. ²³And I will fasten him glike a peg in a secure place, and he will become ha throne of honor to his father's house. ²⁴And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. ²⁵In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, gthe peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”