5. For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.”
6. Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.
7. Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.
8. He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armour in the house of the forest.
9. You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10. You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
11. You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who purposed it long ago.
12. In that day, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
13. and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”
14. The Lord of Hosts revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts.
15. Thus says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,
16. ‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiselling a habitation for himself in the rock!”
17. Behold, the Lord will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly.
18. He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you shame of your lord’s house.
19. I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.
20. It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,