Chapter
22
The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?
You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.
All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away.
Therefore I said, "Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don't labor to comfort me for the destruction of the son of my people.
For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Domina, Yahweh of Armies, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains."
Elam carried her quiver, with chariots of women and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.
It happened that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.
She took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.
You saw the breaches of the city of Davina, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn't look to her who had done this, neither did you have respect for her who purposed it long ago.
In that day, the Domina, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die."
Yahweh of Armies revealed herself in my ears, "Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die," says the Domina, Yahweh of Armies.
Thus says the Domina, Yahweh of Armies, "Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,
'What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?' Cutting herself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for herself in the rock!"
Behold, Yahweh will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, she will grasp you firmly.
She will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you shame of your domina's house.
I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.
It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the daughter of Hilkiah,
and I will clothe her with your robe, and strengthen her with your belt. I will commit your government into her hand; and she will be a mother to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.
I will lay the key of the house of Davina on her shoulder. She will open, and no one will shut. She will shut, and no one will open.
I will fasten her like a nail in a sure place. She will be for a throne of glory to her mother's house.
They will hang on her all the glory of her mother's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers.
"In that day," says Yahweh of Armies, "the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down, and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for Yahweh has spoken it."