UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

ISA C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36 C37 C38 C39 C40 C41 C42 C43 C44 C45 C46 C47 C48 C49 C50 C51 C52 C53 C54 C55 C56 C57 C58 C59 C60 C61 C62 C63 C64 C65 C66

UST ISA Chapter 22

◄ ISA 22 ► ║ ═ ©

22 Yahweh gave this message about Jerusalem, which is up on a mountain, but which seemed like a valley in the vision he gave me.

It is strange that so many people have gone up onto their flat rooftops.

2 People in the city are having a very noisy celebration.

Many other people have died,

but enemies did not kill them with swords.

Instead, they died of hunger or disease.

3 The leaders of the city have fled

and surrendered to the enemy without fighting.

Other people tried to flee far from the city,

but the enemy found them and captured them.

4 Because of this, I have told the people around me,

“Leave me alone, because I want to weep bitterly.

Do not try to comfort me about how the enemy is destroying

Jerusalem, our capital city.”

5 I am so sad because Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

has allowed this to be a time of great trouble for Jerusalem.

Enemy soldiers will try to batter down the city walls.

Then the people will cry out for help to Yahweh,

whose temple is on Mount Zion.

6 Armies from Elam and Kir are ready to attack.

They have arrived in chariots and on horseback.

They have brought quivers full of arrows,

and they are removing the protective covers of their shields

to get ready to fight a battle.

7 Enemy chariots have overrun the fertile valleys around the city.

Enemy soldiers have come on horseback

and positioned themselves right outside the city gates.

8 Those enemies destroyed the defenses of Judah.

When that happened, the people of Jerusalem hoped they could protect themselves

with the supply of weapons in the House of the Forest.

9 The people realized that there were many breaks in the walls of Jerusalem.

They also realized that they needed to collect water and store it safely within the city.

10 So they surveyed the houses in Jerusalem

and tore some of them down to use their stones to repair the city wall.

11 They also built a reservoir, the Pool of Siloam, between the walls of the city

to store water that they channeled down from the catchment area of the Gihon Spring.

But they did not ask Yahweh for help,

even though he was the one who originally created the water.

12 At that time, Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

told the people to weep and mourn

and shave their heads and wear rough cloth

to show that they were sorry for the sins they had committed.

13 But instead of doing that, they had a celebration!

They slaughtered cattle and sheep

to have meat for a feast where they also drank wine.

They said, “We should eat and drink as much as we want,

because we might die tomorrow!”

14 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, revealed this to me: “I swear that I will not forgive these people for this sin for as long as they live!” That is what Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies, said.

15 Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies, also said this to me:

“Go and give this message from me to Shebna,

the official who is in charge of the royal palace:

16 ‘You should not be having workers chisel out a tomb for you

in that rocky cliff above the city of Jerusalem!

You have no ancestors who have tombs there.

17 You think that you are a great man,

but I am about to take away your official position.

It will be as if I grab you powerfully and throw you away.

18 It will be as if I roll you up into a ball

and hurl you into a large, open country.

You will die there.

You are very proud of your military power,

but this will be the end of it.

I am going to punish you in this way because

you have disgraced the household of your master, the king.

19 I will remove you from your important position

so that you have to stop working in the palace.

20 Then I will summon my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah to replace you.

21 I will give him your robe to wear,

and I will fasten your sash around him.

This will show that I have given him the authority that you had.

He will protect the people who live in Jerusalem and other places in Judah,

just as a father protects his family. 22 I will give him authority over the royal household of Judah.

When he says that something should happen,

no one will stop it from happening.

When he says that something should not happen,

no one will make it happen.

23 I will establish him firmly in his position

as if he were a peg that someone had hammered firmly into a wall.

He will bring great honor to his family,

as if they had a special place to sit on important occasions.

24 Many members of the younger generation of his extended family

will receive important positions because of him.

It will be as if he is a peg on which people hang

all of their small household containers, such as bowls and jars.

25 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares, “There will be a time when Eliakim no longer has his position. It will be as if a peg that someone firmly fastened had come loose and fallen down and everything that was hanging on it had also crashed down.” This will surely happen because Yahweh has said that it will happen.