Isaiah 22

¹The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

²You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.

³All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away.

⁴Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, GOD of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.”

⁶Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.

⁸He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.

⁹You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹You 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 planned it long ago.

¹²In that day, the Lord, GOD of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth;