The Valley of Vision
22 1 An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision. What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops, a a v1 Valley of Vision: a poetic name for Jerusalem, likely evoking the deep valleys surrounding the city. 2 you town full of noise, you wild, chaotic city, you reveling town? Your dead were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. 3 All your rulers fled together; they were captured without a bow being drawn. All of you who were found were taken captive together, though you had fled far away. 4 So I said, "Look away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me over the ruin of the daughter of my people." 5 For the Father of heaven's armies has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision — walls battered down and a cry for help echoing to the mountains. 6 Elam took up the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir bared their shields. 7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their positions at the gates. 8 Our Father stripped away the defenses of Judah. And in that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest, b b v8 House of the Forest: Solomon's large armory in Jerusalem, named for its many cedar columns. 9 and you saw how many breaches there were in the city of David. You collected the water of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore some down to fortify the wall. 11 You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, nor consider our Father who planned it long ago. 12 In that day the Father of heaven's armies called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and mourning clothes. c c v12 Sackcloth: coarse, scratchy fabric worn in biblical times as a public sign of mourning or repentance. 13 But instead there was joy and celebration, slaughtering cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"
14 The Father of heaven's armies has revealed this to me: "Surely this sin will not be wiped away from you until you die," says the Father of heaven's armies.
15 This is what the Father of heaven's armies says: "Go to this steward, Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What are you doing here, and who gave you the right to be here, that you have cut out a tomb for yourself here — carving your grave high up on the heights, chiseling your resting place in the rock? 17 Look, our Father is about to hurl you away violently, you strong man; he will seize firm hold of you, 18 He will wind you up tightly and fling you like a ball into a vast open land. There you will die, and there your splendid chariots will lie — you disgrace to your master's house. 19 I will depose you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.
20 In that day I will summon my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, 21 I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash on him, and I will hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to the people of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder; what he opens no one will shut, and what he shuts no one will open. d d v22 Jesus applies this verse to himself in Revelation 3:7 — Eliakim foreshadows the eternal Son who holds the key of David. 23 I will drive him in like a peg in a firm place, and he will become a seat of honor for his father's house. 24 They will hang on him the whole weight of his father's house — the offspring and the offshoots, every small vessel, from the bowls to all the jars. 25 In that day, declares the Father of heaven's armies, the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off — for our Father has spoken.