Proclamation Against Jerusalem

22 The [a]burden against the Valley of Vision.

What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
You who are full of noise,
A [b]tumultuous city, (A)a joyous city?
Your slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.
All your rulers have fled together;
They are captured by the archers.
All who are found in you are bound together;
They have fled from afar.
Therefore I said, “Look away from me,
(B)I will weep bitterly;
Do not labor to comfort me
Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”

(C)For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity
(D)By the Lord God of hosts
In the Valley of Vision—
Breaking down the walls
And of crying to the mountain.
(E)Elam bore the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And (F)Kir uncovered the shield.
It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys
Shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

(G)He removed the [c]protection of Judah.
You looked in that day to the armor (H)of the House of the Forest;
(I)You also saw the [d]damage to the city of David,
That it was great;
And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses you broke down
To fortify the wall.
11 (J)You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the water of the old (K)pool.
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.

12 And in that day the Lord God of hosts
(L)Called for weeping and for mourning,
(M)For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
13 But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and (N)drinking wine:
(O)“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

14 (P)Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts,
“Surely for this iniquity there (Q)will be no atonement for you,
Even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 22:1 oracle, prophecy
  2. Isaiah 22:2 boisterous
  3. Isaiah 22:8 Lit. covering
  4. Isaiah 22:9 Lit. breaches in the city walls

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