1A message about the Valley of Vision (Jerusalem). What's happening? Why has everyone gone up onto the rooftops?

2There are shouts and commotion all over the city with people celebrating. Your dead weren't killed by the sword or in battle. ⁸⁸

3All your leaders ran away together; they were captured without resistance. All your people trying to escape were captured together, even though they had run a long way away.

4That's why I said, “Go away! Let me mourn in peace. Don't insist on comforting me as the daughter of my people ⁸⁹is ruined.”

5For the Lord has a day of defeat, of panic and confusion in the Valley of Vision, a day of tearing down walls and crying for help to the mountains.

6The Elamites pick up their quivers full of arrows, and prepare their chariots and horsemen, while the people of Kir uncover their shields ready for battle. ⁹⁰

7Your most productive valleys are now full of enemy chariots; and their cavalry are at your gates!

8Judah's defenses have been stripped away and so at that time you went looking for weapons in the Palace of the Forest. ⁹¹

9You examined the breaks in the walls of the City of David and found there were many. You had water collect in the lower pool.

10Your reviewed the number of houses in the city and demolished some to provide stone ⁹²to repair the walls.

11You built a reservoir inside the walls for the waters from the old pool, but you did not respect its Maker or think about the One who planned it long ago.

12At that time the Lord, the Lord Almighty, was calling you to weep and mourn, to shave your heads and wear sackcloth.

13Instead, you go on happily partying! You slaughter cattle and sheep so you can have your feasts, eating meat and drinking wine, saying, “Let's eat and drink, because we're going to die tomorrow!”

14The Lord Almighty has made this clear to me: “I will not forgive this sin till your dying day, says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.”

15This is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, told me to do. “Go to Shebna, the palace manager, and give him this message:

16‘What are you doing here? Who do you think you are, cutting out a tomb for yourself high up on a hill, carving out for yourself a place to rest?

17Watch out, you great man! The Lord is about to grab you and violently toss you aside.

18He's going to roll you up into a ball, and throw you far away into a vast country. ⁹³You will die there, and that's where the chariots you were so proud of will remain. You're a disgrace to your lord's royal family.

19I ⁹⁴will push you out of office, I will strip you of your position.

20After that I will call for my servant, Eliakim, son of Hilkiah.

21I will put your robe and place your sash around him, and I will give your authority to him. He will be a father to the people living in Jerusalem and Judah.

22I will give him the key to the house of David. ⁹⁵What he opens, nobody can shut; what he shuts, nobody can open.

23I will drive him like a nail hammered securely into a wall. He will bring honor to his family.

24The heavy burden of his father's family will hang on him—all the descendants and the inlaws—all the little containers, bowls and all kinds of jars.

25So the time will come, declares the Lord Almighty, when the nail will come out of the wall, even though it was hammered in securely. It will break off and fall down, and everything hanging on it will fall down too. The Lord has spoken.’”