1 The burden of the valley of visions. What hast thou to do here, that thou climbest unto the house tops,
2 O thou city of miracles, seditious and willful? Thy slain men are neither killed with sword, nor dead in battle.
3 For all thy Captains gat them to their horses from the ordinance, yea they are all together ridden away, and fled far off.
4 When I perceived that, I said, "Let me alone, and I will make lamentation. Take no labour for to comfort me, as touching the destruction of my people."
5 For this is the day of the LORD of Hosts, wherein he will plague, tread down, and weed out the valley of visions, and break down the walls, with such a crack, that it shall give a sound in the mountains.
6 Elam bare the quiver in a chariot of footmen and of horsemen, and the city of Kir showed the shield open.
7 Thy chief valley also was full of chariots, and the horsemen set their faces directly toward the gate.
8 Then was the covering of Judah put from thence, and then was seen the siege of the timber house.
9 There shall ye see the rifts in the walls of the city of David, whereof there shall be many. Ye shall gather together the waters of the lower pool,
10 and number the houses of Jerusalem, and break of some of them to make the wall strong.
11 And ye shall make a pit betwixt the twain walls of the water of the old pool, and nothing regard him that took it in hand, and made it long ago.
12 And at the same time shall the LORD of Hosts call men to weeping, mourning, to baldness and a putting on of sackcloth.
13 But they to fulfill their lust and willfulness, slaughter oxen: they kill sheep, they eat costly meat, and drink wine. "Let us eat and drink, tomorrow we shall die."
14 Nevertheless, when the LORD of Hosts heard of it, he said: "Yea, if this wickedness of yours shall be remitted, ye must die for it." This hath the LORD God of Hosts spoken.
15 Thus sayeth the LORD God of Hosts, "Go in to the treasury unto Shebna the governor, and say to him,
16 'What hast thou here to do? And whom hast thou here? That thou shouldest here hew thee out a sepulchre, as it were one that causeth a costly tomb of stone to be made for himself, or that graveth a habitation out of a rock?
17 Behold, the LORD shall carry thee away into captivity, and shall surely cover thee with confusion.
18 The LORD shall turn thee over like a ball with his hands, and shall send thee into a far country. There shalt thou die, there shall the pomp of thy chariots have an end: thou villain of the house of thy LORD.
19 I will shoot thee out of thine office, and put thee from thine estate.
20 After this will I call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
21 and array him with thy coat, and gird him with thy girdle, and I will give thy power into his hand. He shall be a father of the citizens of Jerusalem, and of the kindred of Judah.
22 I will also lay the key of David's house upon his shoulders, and if he open, no man shall shut: and if he do shut, no man shall open.
23 I will fasten him to a nail in the place of the most high faithfulness, and he shall be upon the glorious throne of his father's house.
24 They shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, of the children and children's children, all apparel small and great, all instruments of measure and music.
25 In that day, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place depart and be broken, and fall: and the burden that was upon it shall be plucked away. For the LORD himself hath said it.