Denunciation of Self-Seeking Officials

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Go to the steward Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him:^{(A) 16} What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb^[a] on the height and carving a habitation for yourself^[b] in the rock?^{(B) 17} The Lord is about to hurl you away violently, my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you, ¹⁸ whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there your splendid chariots shall lie, O you disgrace to your master’s house!^{(C) 19} I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.

²⁰ “On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah^{(D) 21} and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²² I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.^{(E) 23} I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house.^{(F) 24} And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. ²⁵ On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the Lord has spoken.”^(G)