Isaiah 22:1-14

Common English Bible

Jerusalemites rebuked

22 An oracle about the Valley of Vision.

What is wrong with you,
    that you have all gone up to the rooftops,
²    you who are filled with noise,
    you roaring city, you party town?
Your dead weren’t slaughtered by the sword;
    they didn’t die in battle.
³All your leaders escaped together
    but were captured without a single bow shot.
    All your escapees were bound together, even though they fled far away.^[a]
⁴Therefore, I said, “Don’t look at me;
        let me weep bitterly.
    Don’t try to comfort me
        about the destruction of my dearly loved people.”
⁵The Lord God of heavenly forces has a day of tumult and trampling and turmoil in the Valley of Vision,
        a breaking down of walls,
        a cry for help to the mountains.
⁶Elam carried the quiver with chariots and horsemen,
    and Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷Your finest valleys were filled with chariots,
    and horsemen doggedly guarded the gate.
⁸Judah’s covering has been stripped away.

On that day, you trusted the weapons in the Forest House.
⁹    You observed the many broken defenses in David’s City,
    and you collected the waters of the lower pool.
¹⁰You counted Jerusalem’s houses,
    and you tore down houses to fortify the wall.
¹¹You made a reservoir between the walls for the water of the earlier pool.
    But you didn’t trust its maker;
    you didn’t consider the one who planned it long ago.

¹²The Lord God of heavenly forces called on that day
    for weeping and mourning, and shaven heads, and wearing of mourning clothes.
¹³But instead there was
    fun and frivolity,
    killing of cattle
    and slaughtering of sheep,
    eating of meat and drinking of wine:
    “Eat and drink! Tomorrow we will die!”
¹⁴But the Lord of heavenly forces has revealed in my hearing:
    This iniquity won’t be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord God of heavenly forces.