A message for Shebna

15 The Commander of the armies of angels said this to me: “Go to Shebna, the official who supervises the workers in the palace, and give this message to him:

16 'Who do you think you are?

Who gave you the authority to build a beautiful tomb where you will be buried,

chiseling it out of the rocky cliff high above this valley?

17 You think that you are [IRO] a great man, but Yahweh is about to hurl you away.

It will be as though he will seize you,

18 and roll/crumple you into a ball

and throw you away into a large distant land.

You will die and be buried there,

and your beautiful chariots will stay there in the hands of your enemies.

And because of what happens to you, your master, the king, will be very ashamed/disgraced.

19 Yahweh will force you to quit working in the palace;

you will be demoted from your important position.

20 Then I will summon Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who has served serve me well, to replace you. 21 I will allow him to wear your robe, and to fasten your sash around him, and I will give to him the authority that you had. He will be like [MET] a father to the people of Jerusalem and all the other towns in Judah. 22 I will give to him authority [MTY] over what happens in the palace where King David lived; when he decides something [MET], no one will be able to oppose it; when he refuses to do something, no one will be able to force him to do it. 23 I will cause his family to be greatly respected, because I will put him firmly in his position as supervisor of the workers in the palace, like [SIM] a nail that is firmly hammered into a wall. 24 Others will enable him to have much responsibility, with the result that all the members of his family, even the most insignificant ones, will be honored.' ”

25 But the Commander of the armies of angels also says, “Shebna is like [MET] a peg that is firmly fastened to the wall. But there will be a time when I will remove him from his position; he will lose his power/influence, and everything that he promoted [MET] will fail. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”