Two False Views of Sin – Isaiah 22:1-25
22 The oracle concerning the Valley of Vision. What is the matter, what causes all of you to go up to the rooftops? (2) O you city full of shouting, a city full of revelry, a joyful town! Your slain have not been slain by the sword after all, neither have they died in battle. (3) All your leaders fled together; they were captured without even using the bow. All your inhabitants who were found were bound together—they had fled far away. (4) Therefore I said, Turn your eyes away from me, let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people. (5) It is a day of tumult and of trampling down and of terror—from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts—in the Valley of Vision. It is a day of battering down the walls and crying out to the mountains. (6) Elam took up the quiver, with her charioteers and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield for battle. (7) And so it happened that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took up their positions at the city gates.
(8) He removed the defense that covered Judah; but on that day you depended on the armor stored in the Palace of the Forest. (9) You saw that the city of David had many breaches in its defenses; you stored up water in the Lower Pool. (10) You counted the buildings in Jerusalem, and you tore down houses to fortify the wall. (11) You built a reservoir between the two walls to store the water of the Old Pool. But you did not look to him who had done this, neither did you express reverence for him who planned all this long ago. (12) On that day the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, called you to weep and to wail, to shave your head and to put on sackcloth. (13) But look! There was joy and revelry, there was the slaughtering of cattle and the killing of sheep, there was the eating of meat and the drinking of wine! You said, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die! (14) Jehovah of hosts has revealed his intention in my ears: Surely, this iniquity will not be forgiven until you die, declares the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
(15) This is what the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, says, Go to this steward, Shebna, who is in charge of the palace, and say to him, (16) What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a tomb for yourself here?—cutting out a tomb for himself on the height, chiseling a resting place for himself in the rock! (17) Listen! Jehovah, like a strong man, will violently hurl you away! Indeed, he will grasp you firmly, (18) wrap you up tightly like a ball, and throw you into a vast country. There you will die. There shall your splendid chariots remain—you disgrace to your master’s house! (19) I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position. (20) On that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. (21) I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around his waist; and I will hand your authority over to him. He will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. (22) I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder; what he opens, no one will shut, and what he shuts, no one will open. (23) I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will occupy a seat of honor for his father’s house. (24) But if the whole weight of his father’s house should hang themselves upon him—its offspring and its offshoots; every little vessel, from the cups to all the jars; then, (25) on that day, declares Jehovah of hosts, the peg that was driven into a firm place will give way. It will be sheared off and fall, and the load hanging on it will perish. Beware, for Jehovah has declared it.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
