¹ The oracle on the valley of vision,—What aileth thee, then, That thou art wholly gone up to the house-tops?

² With tumults, art thou filled, thou citadel in commotion! city exultant! Thy slain, are Not the slain, of the sword, Nor the dead in battle.

³ All thy ruler, having fled, together, by the bow, are taken captive: All found in thee have been taken captive, together, Far away, have they fled.

⁴ For this cause, I said—Look away from me, Bitterly, will I weep,—Do not press to comfort me, For the ruin of the daughter of my people.

⁵ For a day of confusion and downtreading and perplexity, pertaineth to My Lord, Yahweh of hosts, in the valley of vision, an undermining of walls, and a crying for help to the mountain.

⁶ Yea, Elam, beareth the quiver, With trains of men, [and] horsemen,—And, Kir, hath uncovered the shield.

⁷ And it hath come to pass that the choice of thy vales, are full of chariots; Yea, the horsemen, have set themselves, in array, at the gate.

⁸ Then removed he the veil of Judah,—Yea thou didst peer on that day, into the armoury of the forest-house;

⁹ And the breaches in the city of David, ye beheld for they were many,—So ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool;

¹⁰ And the houses of Jerusalem, ye counted,—And brake down the houses, to fortify the wall;

¹¹ And a reservoir, ye made between the two walls, for the waters of the ancient pool,—And had no regard unto him that made it, Nor unto him that formed it long ago, had ye respect.

¹² And, when My Lord Yahweh of hosts called in that day,—for weeping, and for lamentation, and for shaving bare and for girding with sackcloth,

¹³ Then lo! joy and rejoicing, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine,—Let us eat and drink, For to-morrow, we may die!

¹⁴ Therefore did Yahweh reveal himself in mine ears. Surely there shall be no propitiatory-covering put over this iniquity for you until ye die, Saith My Lord Yahweh of hosts.

¹⁵ Thus, said My Lord Yahweh, of hosts, Come go in unto this steward, Unto Shebna, who is over the house:

¹⁶ What doest thou here? And whom hast thou here? That thou hast hewn for thyself here a sepulchre,—As one hewing on high his sepulchre, Cutting out in the cliff a habitation for himself?

¹⁷ Lo! Yahweh, is about to hurl thee, with a hurl, O mighty man,—And roll thee with a roll;

¹⁸ He will, toss, thee, with a toss, like a ball, into a country wide on both hands,—There, shalt thou die, And there shall thy glorious chariots be the contempt of the house of thy lord.

¹⁹ Thus will I thrust thee out from thine office,—And from thy station, shall one tear thee down.

²⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, That I will call for my servant, for Eliakim son of Hilkiah,

²¹ And will clothe him with thy tunic And with thy girdle, will I gird him, And thine authority, will I deliver into his hand,—So shall he become a father To the inhabitant of Jerusalem and To the house of Judah.

²² And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder,—And he shall open and none shall shut, And shut and none shall open;

²³ And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place,—And he shall become a throne of glory, to the house of his father;

²⁴ And they shall hang upon him all the weight of his father’s house—The offshoots and the side-twigs—All the small vessels, Both the cups and all the jugs

²⁵ In that day,—Declareth Yahweh of hosts Shall the peg, give way, that was fastened in a sure place,—Yea it shall be cut off and fall And the burden that was upon it shall perish, For, Yahweh, hath spoken!