The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops? 2You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. 3All your rulers fled away together, they were bound by the archers; all who were found of you were bound together; they fled afar off. 4Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; do not labour to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 5For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Allah, Lord of the universe, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains. 6Elam bore the quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. 7It happened that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. 8He took away the covering of Judah; and you did look in that day to the armour in the house of the forest. 9You saw the breaches of the city of Dawud, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool; 10and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall; 11you made also a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who purposed it long ago. 12In that day did the Lord, Allah, Lord of the universe, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: 13and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.[1] 14Allah, Lord of the universe revealed himself in my ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord, Allah, Lord of the universe. 15Thus says the Lord, Allah, Lord of the universe, Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, 16“What are you doing here? Who have you here, that you have cut out a tomb here? Cutting him out a tomb on high, chiseling a home for himself in the rock!“ 17Behold, Allah, like a strong man, will hurl you away violently; yes, he will wrap you up closely. 18He will surely wind you round and round, and toss you like a ball into a large country; there you shall die, and there shall be the chariots of your glory, you shame of your lord’s house. 19I will thrust you from your office; and from your station shall you be pulled down. 20It shall happen in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim Ibn Hilkiah: 21and I will cloth him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt, and I will commit your government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 22The key of the house of Dawud will I lay on his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father’s house. 24They shall hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers. 25In that day, says Allah, Lord of the universe, shall the nail that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it shall be hewn down, and fall; and the burden that was on it shall be cut off; for Allah has spoken it.
[1] 22:13 Quoted in the Injil in 1 Corinthians 15:32.