An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem
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The 1oracle concerning 2the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,
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you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, 3exultant town? Your slain are 4not slain with the sword or dead in battle.
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5All 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.
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Therefore I said: "Look away from me; 6let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people."
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7For the Lord GOD of hosts has 8a day of tumult and 9trampling and 10confusion in 11the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains.
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Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
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He has taken away 14the covering of Judah.In that day you looked to 15the weapons of the House of the Forest,
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and you saw that 16the breaches of the city of David were many. 17You collected the waters of the lower pool,
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and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
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18You made a reservoir between 19the two walls for the water of 20the old pool. But 21you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.
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In that day 22the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for 23baldness and 24wearing sackcloth;
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and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. 25"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
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The LORD of hosts 26has revealed himself in my ears: "Surely 27this iniquity will not be atoned for you 28until you die," says the Lord GOD of hosts.
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Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, "Come, go to this steward, to 29Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him:
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What have you to do here, and whom have you here, 30that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you 31who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock?
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Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. 32He will seize firm hold on you
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and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be 33your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house.
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34I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.
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In that day I will call my servant 35Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
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and 36I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be 37a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
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And I will place 38on his shoulder 39the key of the house of David. 40He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
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And I will fasten him 41like a peg in a secure place, and he will become 42a throne of honor to his father's house.
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And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.
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In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, 43the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)