Isaiah 22
The Voice
22 A message about the valley of Vision[a]:
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.
That’s what the Lord, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, said.
This message beginning with verse 15 is laid on the people of God living in and around Jerusalem. The prophet’s word is a corrective to those who proudly and confidently presume that they enjoy a privileged status with God by virtue of where they live and who their ancestors are. After all, God has pledged to King David that his dynasty will continue. The Judeans assume this means they will not have to worry about their enemies, regardless of how faithful or faithless they are to God. So when the enemy threat materializes on their border and moves right into bowshot, they do what most people do: they make reasonable, defensive preparations. But what they forget to do is key: they forget to turn to God. They put their trust in their weapons and their engineering skills. They ignore the One who established the city and made them a nation in the first place. So God tells Isaiah to have a talk with Shebna, the caretaker of the royal palace. God is about to make a change.
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.
The Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, has declared it to be so.
Footnotes
- 22:1 A reference to Jerusalem
- 22:13 1 Corinthians 15:32
- 22:15 “The Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies” has been shifted to the end of the discourse (verse 25) to avoid confusing the identity of the speaker.
Isaiah 22
English Standard Version
An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem
22 The (A)oracle concerning (B)the valley of vision.
What do you mean that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,
2 you who are full of shoutings,
tumultuous city, (C)exultant town?
Your slain are (D)not slain with the sword
or dead in battle.
3 (E)All 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.
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
(F)let me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 (G)For the Lord God of hosts has (H)a day
of tumult and (I)trampling and (J)confusion
in (K)the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
and a shouting to the mountains.
6 And (L)Elam bore the quiver
with chariots and horsemen,
and (M)Kir uncovered the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
8 He has taken away (N)the covering of Judah.
In that day you looked to (O)the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that (P)the breaches of the city of David were many. (Q)You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 (R)You made a reservoir between (S)the two walls for the water of (T)the old pool. But (U)you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.
12 In that day (V)the Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for (W)baldness and (X)wearing sackcloth;
13 and behold, joy and gladness,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine.
(Y)“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
14 The Lord of hosts (Z)has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely (AA)this iniquity will not be atoned for you (AB)until you die,”
says the Lord God of hosts.
15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to (AC)Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, (AD)that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you (AE)who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. (AF)He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be (AG)your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 (AH)I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant (AI)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and (AJ)I 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 (AK)a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place (AL)on his shoulder (AM)the key of the house of David. (AN)He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him (AO)like a peg in a secure place, and he will become (AP)a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And 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. 25 In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, (AQ)the 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.”
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
