Isaiah 22:1-14

Modern English Version

What ails you now,
    that you all have gone up to the housetops,
² you who were full of noise,
    a tumultuous city, a joyous city?
Your slain are not slain with the sword,
    nor did they die in battle.
³ All your rulers have fled together;
    they are captured by the archers.
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
    although they had fled from afar.
⁴ Therefore, I say, “Look away from me,
    I will weep bitterly;
do not try to comfort me
    because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵ For it is a day of trouble and of treading down and of perplexity
    by the Lord God of Hosts
    in the Valley of Vision,
a breaking down of the walls
    and a crying to the mountains.
⁶ Elam took up the quiver
    with chariots of men and horsemen,
    and Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ Your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots,
    and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

⁸ And He shall remove the protection of Judah.
    You shall depend in that day
    on the weapons of the house of the forest;
⁹ you have seen also that the breaches
    of the City of David are many;
and you gathered together the waters
    of the lower pool.
¹⁰ You have numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
    and the houses you have broken down to fortify the wall.
¹¹ You also made a reservoir between the two walls
    for the water of the old pool.
But you have not looked to its Maker,
    nor did you respect Him who fashioned it long ago.

¹² In that day the Lord God of Hosts
    called you to weeping and mourning,
    and to tear your hair and wear sackcloth.
¹³ Yet, there is joy and gladness,
    slaying of oxen and killing of sheep,
    eating of meat and drinking wine:
“Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we may die.”