1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops?
2 You that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city; your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
3 All your rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers; all that are found in you are bound together, which have fled from far.
4 Therefore said I, “Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.”
5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by Lord יהוה of hosts (Adonai YHWH Tsevaot) in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
6 And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 And it shall come to pass, that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
8 And he discovered the covering of Judah (Yehudah), and you didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest.
9 You have seen also the breaches of the city of Dawid, that they are many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem (Yerushalayim), and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall.
11 You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but you have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago.
12 And in that day did Lord יהוה of hosts (Adonai YHWH Tsevaot) call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth.
13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: “Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die!”
14 And it was revealed in mine ears by יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot), “Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die,” saith Lord יהוה of hosts (Adonai YHWH Tsevaot).
15 Thus saith Lord יהוה of hosts (Adonai HWH Tsevaot): “Go, get you unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say:
16 ‘What have you here? And whom have you here, that you have hewed you out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock?
17 Behold, יהוה will carry you away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover you.
18 He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country: there shalt you die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your lord (adon)’s house.
19 And I will drive you from your station, and from your state shall he pull you down.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Elyaqim the son of Hilkiah (Chilqiyahu);
21 And I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit your government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Yerushalayim), and to the house of Judah (Yehudah).
22 And the key of the house of Dawid will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.
25 ‘In that day,’ saith יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot), ‘shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for יהוה hath spoken it.’”