Isaiah 22

The Voice

What in the world is wrong with you?
    Why have you climbed on your housetops and started celebrating?
² What noise! The whole city is in an uproar.
    Don’t you realize that your fallen comrades didn’t actually die fighting,
³ That your leaders turned tail together and ran,
    only to be captured without a fight, without even drawing their weapons?
The rest of you tried to run far away
    but were still captured.
⁴ This is why I said, “Just leave me alone;
    let me weep bitterly over this travesty.
Don’t tell me it’s not that bad, or that everything will be all right.
    We’re talking about the destruction of my cherished people!”
⁵ The Lord, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
    determined that this would be the time for destruction—
Smashing and crashing, wreaking havoc and chaos in the valley of Vision,
    battering down walls and crying out to the mountains.
⁶ You tried, but how could you hold off Elam’s skilled archers
    with chariots and horsemen and Kir’s soldiers—shields held high.
⁷ The invader’s chariots overran your pristine valleys,
    and their horsemen made their stand at the city gates.
⁸ But God simply did away with Judah’s defenses.
    In that day you put your trust in weapons stored in the armory.
⁹ You began to fix the many breaks in the walls of the city of David.
    You stocked up on water from the lower pool.
¹⁰ You took stock of the houses in Jerusalem,
    and began to dismantle them stone-by-stone to shore up the city wall.
¹¹ You built a reservoir between two walls to hold the water of the old pool.
    But in all this you neglected the One who could really save you;
You failed to consider the One who actually made this place
    and established it so long ago.

¹² Consequently, the Lord, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
    determined that day would be a time of weeping and regret,
A time of shaved heads and donning sackcloth
    and a time for mourning.
¹³ Yet you missed the point and made merry,
    slaughtering cattle and sheep for a giant celebration,
Eating and drinking your fill of wine!

People (to each other): Eat up, drink up, for tomorrow we die.^[b]

¹⁴ Eternal One (to Isaiah): This sin will not be forgiven.
        It will stay with you until your dying day.

Eternal One:^{[c] 15} Come on. Go to Shebna, the caretaker of the royal household,
        and confront him saying,
¹⁶     “Why are you here, anyway? Do you really belong here?
        What right do you have to build yourself an elegant tomb
    And stone monument here out of the rock on this hill?
¹⁷     Look, strong man! The Eternal is about to throw you out,
        wildly, violently. With a firm grasp
¹⁸     He will crush you like a ball—hurl you deep into a land
        far, far away where you go to die.
    You will be known as the shame of your master’s house
        and your splendid chariots will lie empty.
¹⁹     I will see to it that you’re driven from your post, toppled from your position,
        with all the disgrace and shame that you deserve.
²⁰     When that day comes, I will summon My faithful servant;
        Eliakim the son of Hilkiah will be called
²¹     To take over and assume your authority and office.
        I will clothe him in your royal robes and fasten your sash securely around him.
    He will be a father to the people:
        He will have authority over Jerusalem and Judah.
²²     I will grant him the key to David’s royal house and
        no one can shut what he opens;
        no one can open what he shuts.
²³     I will attach him securely like a peg to that house,
        and he will bring honor to his father and his family.
²⁴     On him will hang all the riches,
        all the honor, of his family’s future.
²⁵     On the appointed day, the peg that was attached so securely to that house
        will become weak, break off, and fall to the ground.
    And everything that had been hung on it will fall down and shatter.