Isaiah 22
22
A Country of Cowards
1-3A Message concerning the Valley of Vision:
What’s going on here anyway?
All this partying and noisemaking,
Shouting and cheering in the streets,
the city noisy with celebrations!
You have no brave soldiers to honor,
no combat heroes to be proud of.
Your leaders were all cowards,
captured without even lifting a sword,
A country of cowards
captured escaping the battle.
You Looked, but You Never Looked to Him
4-8a In the midst of the shouting, I said, “Let me alone.
Let me grieve by myself.
Don’t tell me it’s going to be all right.
These people are doomed. It’s not all right.”
For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
is bringing a day noisy with mobs of people,
Jostling and stampeding in the Valley of Vision,
knocking down walls
and hollering to the mountains, “Attack! Attack!”
Old enemies Elam and Kir arrive armed to the teeth—
weapons and chariots and cavalry.
Your fine valleys are noisy with war,
chariots and cavalry charging this way and that.
God has left Judah exposed and defenseless.
8b-11 You assessed your defenses that Day, inspected your arsenal of weapons in the Forest Armory. You found the weak places in the city walls that needed repair. You secured the water supply at the Lower Pool. You took an inventory of the houses in Jerusalem and tore down some to get bricks to fortify the city wall. You built a large cistern to ensure plenty of water.
You looked and looked and looked, but you never looked to him who gave you this city, never once consulted the One who has long had plans for this city.
12-13The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
called out on that Day,
Called for a day of repentant tears,
called you to dress in somber clothes of mourning.
But what do you do? You throw a party!
Eating and drinking and dancing in the streets!
You barbecue bulls and sheep, and throw a huge feast—
slabs of meat, kegs of beer.
“Seize the day! Eat and drink!
Tomorrow we die!”
14 God-of-the-Angel-Armies whispered to me his verdict on this frivolity: “You’ll pay for this outrage until the day you die.” The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says so.
The Key of the Davidic Heritage
15-19The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, spoke: “Come. Go to this steward, Shebna, who is in charge of all the king’s affairs, and tell him: What’s going on here? You’re an outsider here and yet you act like you own the place, make a big, fancy tomb for yourself where everyone can see it, making sure everyone will think you’re important. God is about to sack you, to throw you to the dogs. He’ll grab you by the hair, swing you round and round dizzyingly, and then let you go, sailing through the air like a ball, until you’re out of sight. Where you’ll land, nobody knows. And there you’ll die, and all the stuff you’ve collected heaped on your grave. You’ve disgraced your master’s house! You’re fired—and good riddance!
20-24“On that Day I’ll replace Shebna. I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I’ll dress him in your robe. I’ll put your belt on him. I’ll give him your authority. He’ll be a father-leader to Jerusalem and the government of Judah. I’ll give him the key of the Davidic heritage. He’ll have the run of the place—open any door and keep it open, lock any door and keep it locked. I’ll pound him like a nail into a solid wall. He’ll secure the Davidic tradition. Everything will hang on him—not only the fate of Davidic descendants but also the detailed daily operations of the house, including cups and cutlery.
25“And then the Day will come,” says God-of-the-Angel-Armies, “when that nail will come loose and fall out, break loose from that solid wall—and everything hanging on it will go with it.” That’s what will happen. God says so.
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Isaiah 22: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 22
22
XXII
1THE ORACLE CONCERNING THE VALLEY OF VISION.
What aileth thee now, that thou art gone up, all of thee to the house-tops?
2O thou, that wast full of noise,
A tumultuous city, a joyous city!
Thy slain are not slain by the sword,
Neither are they dead in battle.
3All thy leaders who fled away together, have been taken by the archers;
All that were found in thee have been taken together, even they who had fled from far.
4Wherefore I said: Turn your eyes away from me; I will weep bitterly:
Labour not to comfort me for the desolation of the daughter of my people.
5For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity,
From the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision:
They break down the wall,
And the outcry for help pierceth unto the mountains.
6And Elam beareth the quiver,
With chariots of men and horsemen;
And Kir uncovereth the shield.
7And it came to pass, that thy choicest valleys were filled with chariots,
And the horsemen did set themselves in array against the gate.
8And when he removed the veil of Judah,
Thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest.
9Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they have multiplied;
And ye collected together the waters of the lower pool.
10And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall.
11Ye have made also a reservoir for water between the two walls,
For the water of the old pool.
But ye have not looked unto Him who hath disposed this;
And Him who formed it of old, ye have not regarded.
12And in that day did the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, call
To weeping and to lamentation;
And to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
13But, behold joy and gladness,
Slaying of oxen, and killing of sheep;
Eating of flesh, and drinking of wine:
Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.
14Therefore it was revealed in mine ears by Jehovah of hosts,
Surely this your iniquity shall not be expiated till ye die,
Saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
15Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts:
Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, who is over the household, and say:
16What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here?
That thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here?
O thou that hewest out thy sepulchre on high,
That gravest in the rock an habitation for thyself!
17Behold, Jehovah casteth thee down with a mighty overthrow:
And grasping he will grasp thee;
18In whirling he will whirl thee with a whirl,
Like that of a ball, into a wide country:
There shalt thou die; and there shall thy glorious chariots be;
O thou the shame of the house of thy lord!
19And I will drive thee from thy station,
And from thy state shall he pull thee down.
20And it shall come to pass in that day,
That I will call my servant,
Even Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:
21And I will clothe him with thy robe,
And strengthen him with thy girdle;
And thy government will I commit into his hand;
And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
And to the house of Judah.
22And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder;
And he shall open, and none shall shut;
And he shall shut, and none shall open.
23And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place;
And he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house,
The offspring of high and of low degree;
All small vessels, from vessels used as cups
To every sort of meaner vessels.
25In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts,
Shall the nail that is fastened in a sure place be removed,
And be cut down, and fall;
And the burden which was upon it shall be cut off:
For Jehovah hath spoken it.
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.