Isaiah 22:1-14

GOD’S WORD Translation

Judah Will Be Punished

22 This is the divine revelation about the valley of Vision.

What’s the matter with you?
Why do all of you go up on the roofs?
²You are a city filled with shouting,
a town filled with noise and excitement.
Your people weren’t killed with swords.
Your dead didn’t die in battle.
³All your leaders fled together
and were captured without their bows and arrows.
All those who were found were taken prisoner
before any of them could get far away.
⁴That is why I say,
“Turn away from me
so that I can cry bitterly.
Don’t try to comfort me
because of the destruction brought on my people.”

⁵The Almighty Lord of Armies has chosen a special day.
It will be a day of confusion and trampling
in the valley of Vision,
⌞a day of⌟ tearing down walls and crying for help
in the mountains.
⁶Elam takes its quiver of arrows,
manned chariots, and horsemen.
Kir uncovers its shields.
⁷Then your fertile valleys will be filled with chariots,
and horsemen will stand ready in front of the gate.
⁸On that day the Lord will remove the defenses of Judah.

You will look for weapons in the House of the Forest.^[a]
⁹You will see how many places in David’s wall are broken.
You will store water in the Lower Pool.
¹⁰You will count the houses in Jerusalem.
You will tear down those houses in order to fortify the walls.
¹¹You will build a reservoir between the two walls
to hold the water of the Old Pool.
You didn’t look to Jerusalem’s maker.
You didn’t see the one who formed it long ago.
¹²On that day the Almighty Lord of Armies
will call for crying and for mourning,
for shaving your heads and for wearing sackcloth.
¹³Instead, you will rejoice, celebrate,
slaughter cattle, and butcher sheep.
You will eat meat, drink wine, and say,
“Let’s eat and drink because tomorrow we’re going to die.”