An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem

22 The voracle concerning wthe valley of vision.

What do you mean that you have gone up,

all of you, to the housetops,

2  you who are full of shoutings,

tumultuous city, xexultant town?

Your slain are ynot slain with the sword

or dead in battle.

3  zAll your leaders have fled together;

without the bow they were captured.

All of you who were found were captured,

though they had fled far away.

4  Therefore I said:

“Look away from me;

alet me weep bitter tears;

do not labor to comfort me

concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

5  bFor the Lord God of hosts has ca day

of tumult and dtrampling and econfusion

in wthe valley of vision,

a battering down of walls

and a shouting to the mountains.

6  And fElam bore the quiver

with chariots and horsemen,

and gKir uncovered the shield.

7  Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,

and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.

8  He has taken away hthe covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to ithe weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that jthe breaches of the city of David were many. kYou collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 kYou made a reservoir between lthe two walls for the water of mthe old pool. But nyou did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

12  In that day othe Lord God of hosts

called for weeping and mourning,

for pbaldness and qwearing sackcloth;

13  and behold, joy and gladness,

killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,

eating flesh and drinking wine.

r“Let us eat and drink,

for tomorrow we die.”

14  The Lord of hosts shas revealed himself in my ears:

“Surely tthis iniquity will not be atoned for you uuntil you die,”

says the Lord God of hosts.

15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to vShebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, wthat you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you xwho cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. yHe will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be zyour glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house. 19 aI will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant bEliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and bI will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be ca father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place don his shoulder ethe key of the house of David. fHe shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him glike a peg in a secure place, and he will become ha throne of honor to his father’s house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, gthe peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”

An Oracle Concerning Tyre and Sidon

23 The ioracle concerning jTyre.

Wail, O kships of Tarshish,

for Tyre is laid waste, lwithout house or harbor!

From mthe land of Cyprus1

it is revealed to them.

2  Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;

the merchants of nSidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.

3  And on many waters

your revenue was the grain of Shihor,

the harvest of the Nile;

you were othe merchant of the nations.

4  Be ashamed, O nSidon, for the sea has spoken,

the stronghold of the sea, saying:

“I have neither labored nor given birth,

I have neither reared young men

nor brought up young women.”

5  When the report comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish2 over the report about Tyre.

6  pCross over to Tarshish;

wail, O inhabitants of the coast!

7  Is this your exultant city

qwhose origin is from days of old,

whose feet carried her

to settle far away?

8  Who has purposed this

against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,

whose merchants were princes,

whose traders were the honored of the earth?

9  The Lord of hosts has purposed it,

rto defile the pompous pride of all glory,3

to dishonor all the honored of the earth.

10  Cross over your land like the Nile,

O daughter of Tarshish;

there is no restraint anymore.

11  sHe has stretched out his hand over the sea;

he has shaken the kingdoms;

the Lord has given command concerning Canaan

to destroy its strongholds.

12  And he said:

“You will no more exult,

O oppressed virgin daughter of tSidon;

arise, ucross over to vCyprus,

even there you will have no rest.”

13 Behold the land of wthe Chaldeans! This is the people that was not;4 Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected xtheir siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.

14  yWail, O ships of Tarshish,

for your stronghold is laid waste.

15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for zseventy years, like the days5 of one king. At the end of zseventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

16  “Take a harp;

go about the city,

O forgotten prostitute!

Make sweet melody;

sing many songs,

that you may be remembered.”

17 At the end of aseventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and bwill prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18 Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.

Judgment on the Whole Earth

24 Behold, cthe Lord will empty the earth1 and make it desolate,

and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

2  dAnd it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;

as with the slave, so with his master;

as with the maid, so with her mistress;

eas with the buyer, so with the seller;

as with the lender, so with the borrower;

fas with the creditor, so with the debtor.

3  gThe earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered;

hfor the Lord has spoken this word.

4  iThe earth mourns and withers;

the world languishes and withers;

the highest people of the earth languish.

5  The earth lies jdefiled

under its inhabitants;

for kthey have transgressed the laws,

violated the statutes,

broken the everlasting covenant.

6  Therefore la curse devours the earth,

and its inhabitants msuffer for their guilt;

therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,

and few men are left.

7  nThe wine mourns,

the vine languishes,

all the merry-hearted sigh.

8  oThe mirth of the tambourines is stilled,

the noise of the jubilant has ceased,

the mirth of the lyre is stilled.

9  No more do they drink wine pwith singing;

strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

10  qThe wasted city is broken down;

revery house is shut up so that none can enter.

11  sThere is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;

tall joy has grown dark;

the gladness of the earth is banished.

12  Desolation is left in the city;

the gates are battered into ruins.

13  For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth

among the nations,

uas when an olive tree is beaten,

as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.

14  They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;

over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west.2

15  vTherefore in the east3 give glory to the Lord;

in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

16  wFrom the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,

of glory to xthe Righteous One.

But I say, “I waste away,

I waste away. Woe is me!

For ythe traitors have betrayed,

with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.”

17  zTerror and the pit and the snare4

are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!

18  zHe who flees at the sound of the terror

shall fall into the pit,

and he who climbs out of the pit

shall be caught in the snare.

For athe windows of heaven are opened,

and bthe foundations of the earth tremble.

19  The earth is utterly broken,

the earth is split apart,

the earth is violently shaken.

20  The earth cstaggers like a drunken man;

it sways like a hut;

dits transgression lies heavy upon it,

and it falls, and will not rise again.

21  On that day the Lord will punish

the host of heaven, in heaven,

and ethe kings of the earth, on the earth.

22  fThey will be gathered together

as prisoners in a pit;

they will be shut up in a prison,

and after many days gthey will be punished.

23  hThen the moon will be confounded

and the sun ashamed,

for ithe Lord of hosts reigns

on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

and his glory will be before his elders.

God Will Swallow Up Death Forever

25 O Lord, jyou are my God;

kI will exalt you; I will praise your name,

for you have done wonderful things,

lplans formed of old, faithful and sure.

2  For you have made the city ma heap,

the fortified city a ruin;

the foreigners’ palace is a city no more;

it will never be rebuilt.

3  nTherefore strong peoples will glorify you;

cities of ruthless nations will fear you.

4  oFor you have been a stronghold to the poor,

a stronghold to the needy in his distress,

pa shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;

qfor the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,

5  rlike heat in a dry place.

You subdue the noise of the foreigners;

as heat by the shade of a cloud,

so the song of the ruthless is put down.

6  sOn this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

tof rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

7  And he will swallow up son this mountain

the covering that is cast over all peoples,

uthe veil that is spread over all nations.

8  vHe will swallow up death forever;

and wthe Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

and xthe reproach of his people he