1 The message concerning the Valley of Ḥizzayon. What troubles you now, that you have all gone up to the house-tops,
2 you who are filled with turmoils, a noisy city, a city of revelry? Your slain are not slain with the sword, nor the dead in battle.
3 All your rulers have fled together; without a bow they were taken captive. All who are found in you are bound together, who have fled from afar.
4 Therefore I said, “Look away from me, let me weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me because of the ravaging of the daughter of my people.”
5 For it is a day of uproar and treading down and perplexity by the Aḏon 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts in the Valley of Ḥizzayon – breaking down of a wall and of crying to the mountain.
6 And Ĕylam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Qir bared the shield.
7 And it shall be that your choicest valleys shall be filled with chariots, and the horsemen shall take up positions at the gate.
8 Then He removed the covering of Yahuḏah. And you looked in that day to the weapons of the house of the Forest.
9 And you saw the breaches of the city of Dawiḏ, that it was great. And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 And you counted the houses of Yerushalayim, and the houses you broke down to strengthen the wall.
11 And you dug a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you have not looked to its Maker, nor have you seen Him who fashioned it long ago.
12 And in that day the Aḏon 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts called for weeping and for mourning, for baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
13 Then see! Joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
14 And it was revealed in my hearing by 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, “For this wickedness shall certainly not be pardoned until you die,” said the Aḏon 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts.
15 Thus said the Aḏon 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, “Go, come to this steward, to Sheḇnah, who is over the house, and say,
16 ‘What have you here, and whom have you here, that you have hewn a tomb here, as he who hews himself a tomb on high, cutting out a resting place for himself in a rock?
17 ‘See, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 is hurling you away, O man, and is firmly grasping you,
18 rolling you up tightly like a ball, into a wide land. There you are to die, and there your esteemed chariots are to be the shame of your master’s house.
19 ‘And I shall drive you from your office, and you shall be ousted from your position.
20 ‘And it shall be in that day, that I shall call My servant Elyaqim son of Ḥilqiyahu.
21 ‘And I shall put your robe on him, and strengthen him with your girdle, and give your authority into his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and to the house of Yahuḏah.
22 ‘And I shall place the key of the house of Dawiḏ on his shoulder. And he shall open, and no one shuts; and shall shut, and no one opens.
23 ‘And I shall fasten him like a peg in a steadfast place, and he shall become a throne of esteem to his father’s house.
24 ‘And they shall hang on him all the weight of his father’s house, the offspring and the offshoots, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the jars.
25 ‘In that day,’ declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, ‘the peg that is fastened in the steadfast place shall be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it shall be cut off. For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has spoken.’ ”