Trouble in Vision Valley
1 This is a message about Vision Valley:
Why are you celebrating
on the flat roofs
of your houses?
2 Your city is filled
with noisy shouts.
Those who lie drunk
in your streets
were not killed in battle.
3 Your leaders ran away,
but they were captured
without a fight.
No matter how far they ran,
they were found and caught.
4 Then I said, “Leave me alone!
Let me cry bitter tears.
My people have been destroyed,
so don't try to comfort me.”
5 The Lord All-Powerful
had chosen a time
for noisy shouts and confusion
to fill Vision Valley,
and for everyone to beg
the mountains for help.
6 The people of Elam and Kir
attacked with chariots
and carried shields.
7 Your most beautiful valleys
were covered with chariots;
your cities were surrounded
by cavalry troops.
8 Judah was left defenseless.
At that time you trusted in the weapons you had stored in Forest Palace. 9 You saw the holes in the outer wall of Jerusalem, and you brought water from the lower pool. 10 You counted the houses in Jerusalem and tore down some of them, so you could get stones to repair the city wall. 11 Then you built a large tank between the walls to store the water. But you refused to trust the God who planned this long ago and made it happen.
A Time To Weep
12 When all of this happened,
the Lord All-Powerful told you
to weep and mourn,
to shave your heads,
and wear sackcloth.
13 But instead, you celebrated
by feasting on beef and lamb
and by drinking wine,
because you said,
“Let's eat and drink today!
Tomorrow we may die.”
14 The Lord All-Powerful
has spoken to me
this solemn promise:
“I won't forgive them for this,
not as long as they live.”
Selfish Officials Are Doomed
15 The Lord All-Powerful is sending me with this message for Shebna, the prime minister:
16 Shebna, what gives you the right to have a tomb carved out of rock in this burial place of royalty? None of your relatives are buried here. 17 You may be powerful, but the Lord is about to snatch you up and throw you away. 18 He will roll you into a ball and throw you into a wide open country, where you will die and your chariots will be destroyed. You're a disgrace to those you serve.
19 The Lord is going to take away your job! 20-21 He will give your official robes and your authority to his servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
Eliakim will be like a father to the people of Jerusalem and to the royal family of Judah. 22 The Lord will put him in charge of the key that belongs to King David's family. No one will be able to unlock what he locks, and no one will be able to lock what he unlocks. 23 The Lord will make him as firm in his position as a tent peg hammered in the ground, and Eliakim will bring honor to his family.
24 His children and relatives will be supported by him, like pans hanging from a peg on the wall. 25 That peg is fastened firmly now, but someday it will be shaken loose and fall down. Then everything that was hanging on it will be destroyed. This is what the Lord All-Powerful has promised.
1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee nowe that thou art wholy gone vp vnto the house toppes? 2 Thou that art full of noise, a citie full of brute, a ioyous citie: thy slaine men shall not bee slaine with sworde, nor die in battell. 3 All thy princes shall flee together from the bowe: they shalbe bound: all that shall be found in thee, shall be bound together, which haue fled from farre. 4 Therefore said I, Turne away from me: I wil weepe bitterly: labour not to comfort mee for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 5 For it is a day of trouble, and of ruine, and of perplexitie by the Lord God of hostes in the valley of vision, breaking downe the citie: and a crying vnto the mountaines. 6 And Elam bare the quiuer in a mans charet with horsemen, and Kir vncouered the shield. 7 And thy chiefe valleis were full of charets, and the horsemen set themselues in aray against the gate. 8 And hee discouered the couering of Iudah: and thou didest looke in that day to the armour of the house of the forest. 9 And ye haue seene the breaches of the citie of Dauid: for they were many, and ye gathered the waters of the lower poole. 10 And yee nombred the houses of Ierusalem, and the houses haue yee broken downe to fortifie the wall, 11 And haue also made a ditche betweene the two walles, for the waters of the olde poole, and haue not looked vnto the maker thereof, neither had respect vnto him that formed it of olde. 12 And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call vnto weeping and mourning, and to baldnes and girding with sackecloth. 13 And beholde, ioy and gladnes, slaying oxen and killing sheepe, eating flesh, and drinking wine, eating and drinking: for to morowe we shall die. 14 And it was declared in ye eares of the Lord of hostes. Surely this iniquitie shall not be purged from you, til ye die, saith the Lord God of hostes. 15 Thus sayeth the Lord God of hostes, Goe, get thee to that treasurer, to Shebna, the steward of the house, and say, 16 What haste thou to doe here? and whome hast thou here? that thou shouldest here hewe thee out a sepulchre, as he that heweth out his sepulchre in an hie place, or that graueth an habitation for him selfe in a rocke? 17 Beholde, the Lord wil carie thee away with a great captiuitie, and will surely couer thee. 18 He wil surely rolle and turne thee like a bal in a large countrey: there shalt thou die, and there the charets of thy glory shalbe the shame of thy lordes house. 19 And I wil driue thee from thy station, and out of thy dwelling will he destroy thee. 20 And in that day will I call my seruant Eliakim the sonne of Hilkiah, 21 And with thy garments will I clothe him, and with thy girdle will I strengthen him: thy power also will I commit into his hande, and hee shalbe a father of the inhabitats of Ierusalem, and of the house of Iudah. 22 And the key of the house of Dauid will I lay vpon his shoulder: so hee shall open, and no man shall shut: and he shall shut, and no man shall open. 23 And I will fasten him as a naile in a sure place, and hee shall be for the throne of glorie to his fathers house. 24 And they shall hang vpon him all the glorie of his fathers house, euen of the nephewes and posteritie all small vessels, from the vessels of the cuppes, euen to all the instruments of musike. 25 In that day, sayeth the Lord of hostes, shall the naile, that is fastned in the sure place, depart and shall be broken, and fall: and the burden, that was vpon it, shall bee cut off: for the Lord hath spoken it.