Isaiah 22

Contemporary English Version

Trouble in Vision Valley

22 This is a message about Vision Valley:^[a]

Why are you celebrating
on the flat roofs^[b]
    of your houses?
²Your city is filled
    with noisy shouts.
Those who lie drunk
in your streets
    were not killed in battle.
³Your leaders ran away,
but they were captured
    without a fight.
No matter how far they ran,
    they were found and caught.^[c]

⁴Then I said, “Leave me alone!
Let me cry bitter tears.
My people have been destroyed,
so don't try to comfort me.”

⁵The Lord All-Powerful
    had chosen a time
for noisy shouts and confusion
    to fill Vision Valley,
and for everyone to beg
    the mountains for help.^[d]
⁶The people of Elam and Kir^[e]
attacked with chariots^[f]
    and carried shields.
⁷Your most beautiful valleys
    were covered with chariots;
your cities were surrounded
by cavalry troops.
⁸    Judah was left defenseless.

At that time you trusted in the weapons you had stored in Forest Palace.^[g] ⁹You saw the holes in the outer wall of Jerusalem, and you brought water from the lower pool.^[h] ¹⁰You counted the houses in Jerusalem and tore down some of them, so you could get stones to repair the city wall. ¹¹Then you built a large tank between the walls^[i] to store the water. But you refused to trust the God who planned this long ago and made it happen.

A Time To Weep

¹²When all of this happened,
the Lord All-Powerful told you
    to weep and mourn,
    to shave your heads,
    and wear sackcloth.
¹³^(A) But instead, you celebrated
by feasting on beef and lamb
    and by drinking wine,
because you said,
“Let's eat and drink today!
    Tomorrow we may die.”

¹⁴The Lord All-Powerful
has spoken to me
this solemn promise:
“I won't forgive them for this,
not as long as they live.”

Selfish Officials Are Doomed

¹⁵The Lord All-Powerful is sending me with this message for Shebna, the prime minister:

¹⁶Shebna, what gives you the right to have a tomb carved out of rock in this burial place of royalty? None of your relatives are buried here. ¹⁷You may be powerful, but the Lord is about to snatch you up and throw you away. ¹⁸He will roll you into a ball and throw you into a wide open country, where you will die and your chariots will be destroyed. You're a disgrace to those you serve.

¹⁹The Lord is going to take away your job! ^20-21He will give your official robes and your authority to his servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

Eliakim will be like a father to the people of Jerusalem and to the royal family of Judah. ²²^(B) The Lord will put him in charge of the key that belongs to King David's family. No one will be able to unlock what he locks, and no one will be able to lock what he unlocks. ²³The Lord will make him as firm in his position as a tent peg hammered in the ground, and Eliakim will bring honor to his family.

²⁴His children and relatives will be supported by him, like pans hanging from a peg on the wall. ²⁵That peg is fastened firmly now, but someday it will be shaken loose and fall down. Then everything that was hanging on it will be destroyed. This is what the Lord All-Powerful has promised.

Footnotes

22.1 Vision Valley: The exact location is not known. In Hebrew the name sounds something like “Hinnom Valley,” where the people of Jerusalem sometimes offered human sacrifices to the gods of Canaan.
22.1 flat roofs: In Palestine the houses usually had a flat roof. Stairs on the outside led up to the roof, which was made of beams and boards covered with packed earth.
22.3 No matter … caught: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
22.5 and for … help: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
22.6 Elam and Kir: Regions in the Iranian highlands.
22.6 chariots: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
22.8 Forest Palace: Built by Solomon (1 Kings 7.2) and used as a place for storing weapons.
22.9 the lower pool: Mentioned only here; probably in the southern part of the Central Valley (Tyropoean Valley) of Jerusalem.
22.11 between the walls: Some cities had two walls with a space between them. If the enemy broke through the outer wall, the city was still protected by the inner wall. The houses that were torn down to repair the outer wall were probably squatters' huts that had been built between the two walls.