Isaiah 22:1–14

An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem

22The ^voracle concerning ^wthe valley of vision.

What do you mean that you have gone up,

all of you, to the housetops,

²you who are full of shoutings,

tumultuous city, ^xexultant town?

Your slain are ^ynot slain with the sword

or dead in battle.

^3zAll 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.

⁴Therefore 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.”

^5bFor 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.

⁶And ^fElam bore the quiver

with chariots and horsemen,

and ^gKir uncovered the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,

and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.

⁸He has taken away ^hthe covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to ⁱthe weapons of the House of the Forest, ⁹and you saw that ^jthe breaches of the city of David were many. ^kYou collected the waters of the lower pool, ¹⁰and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ^11kYou 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.

¹²In that day ^othe Lord God of hosts

called for weeping and mourning,

for ^pbaldness and ^qwearing sackcloth;

¹³and behold, joy and gladness,

killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,

eating flesh and drinking wine.

^r“Let us eat and drink,

for tomorrow we die.”

¹⁴The 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.