1The burden of the valley of vision. What is wrong with you now, that you have all gone up onto the housetops?
2You are full of noise, a city of uproar, a city full of joy. Your slain men were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle.
3All your rulers have run away together; they are tied up by the archers. All of you who are found are tied up together, though you fled far away.
4So I said, "Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me, because the daughter of my people has been ruined."
5For it is a day of trouble, of trampling down, and of confusion from the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision: a day of walls broken down, and of crying out to the mountains.
6Elam carried the quiver, with chariots of men and with horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
7Your finest valleys will be full of chariots, and the horsemen will take up their places at the gate.
8He took away the covering of Judah, and on that day you looked to the weapons in the house of the forest.
9You also saw that the breaks in the wall of the city of David were many. You gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you pulled the houses down to make the wall strong.
11You also made a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to the one who made it, and you had no regard for the one who formed it long ago.
12On that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, and to mourning, and to shaving your heads, and to putting on sackcloth.
13But look: there was joy and gladness, killing oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
14The LORD of hosts revealed this in my ears: "Surely this sin will not be washed away from you until you die, says the Lord GOD of hosts."
15This is what the Lord GOD of hosts says: "Go to this treasurer, to Shebna, who is in charge of the house, and say,"
16"'What do you have here? Who do you have here, that you have cut out a tomb for yourself here? You cut out your tomb high up, and carve a resting place for yourself in the rock.'"
17"'Look, the LORD will carry you away with a mighty throw, and he will surely cover you over.'"
18"'He will surely whirl you round and round and toss you like a ball into a wide land. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be the shame of your master's house.'"
19"'I will drive you out of your office, and he will pull you down from your place.'"
20"'On that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.'"
21"'I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt, and I will put your rule into his hand. He will be a father to the people who live in Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.'"
22"'I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut; he will shut, and no one will open.'"
23"'I will fasten him like a nail in a firm place, and he will be a glorious throne for his father's house.'"
24"'They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house: the offspring and the issue, all the small vessels, from the cups to all the jars.'"
25"'On that day, says the LORD of hosts, the nail that was fastened in the firm place will be taken out. It will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken it.'"