Isaiah 22: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Isaiah delivers a message of judgment against the "valley of vision," a city celebrating on its rooftops while an army gathers against it and its leaders flee. The people work hard on their walls and water supply but ignore the one who made it and formed it long ago, and when called to mourn they feast instead, so Isaiah is told this sin will not be wiped away until they die. The second half is a word against Shebna, the official over the palace, who is thrown out of office and replaced by Eliakim son of Hilkiah, given the robe, the authority, and the key of the house of David. The chapter closes by saying that the peg driven into a firm place will itself finally give way and fall.

Claim by Claim

1. 22:1
   • This is a burden concerning the Valley of Vision.
   • The question is asked: what ails you now?
   • The people have all gone up onto the rooftops.
2. 22:2
   • The city is full of shouting.
   • The city is tumultuous.
   • The city is exultant.
   • Your slain were not slain with the sword.
   • Your dead did not die in battle.
3. 22:3
   • All your rulers have fled together.
   • They were taken captive apart from any bow, or else taken captive by the bow; the wording allows either.
   • All of you who were found were captured together.
   • They had fled far away.
4. 22:4
   • Therefore I said: look away from me.
   • I will weep bitterly.
   • Do not press to comfort me.
   • The reason is the destruction of the daughter of my people.
5. 22:5
   • It is a day of tumult, of trampling down, and of confusion.
   • That day belongs to the Lord GOD of hosts.
   • That day is in the Valley of Vision.
   • There is a breaking down of the wall.
   • There is a crying out to the mountain.
6. 22:6
   • Elam took up the quiver.
   • Elam came with chariots of men and with horsemen.
   • Kir uncovered the shield.
7. 22:7
   • Your choicest valleys were full of chariots.
   • The horsemen took their positions at the gate.
8. 22:8
   • He removed the covering of Judah.
   • In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest.
9. 22:9
   • You saw that the breaches in the city of David were many.
   • You collected the waters of the lower pool.
10. 22:10
    • You counted the houses of Jerusalem.
    • You tore down houses to fortify the wall.
11. 22:11
    • You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool.
    • You did not look to the one who made it.
    • You did not see the one who formed it long ago.
12. 22:12
    • In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping.
    • He called for mourning.
    • He called for shaving the head bald.
    • He called for putting on sackcloth.
13. 22:13
    • Instead there was joy and gladness.
    • They were killing oxen.
    • They were slaughtering sheep.
    • They were eating meat.
    • They were drinking wine.
    • They said: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
14. 22:14
    • The LORD of hosts revealed this in my ears.
    • This iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die.
    • The Lord GOD of hosts said it.
15. 22:15
    • Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts.
    • Go to this steward.
    • The steward is Shebna.
    • Shebna is over the house.
16. 22:16
    • The question is asked: what have you here?
    • The question is asked: whom have you here?
    • You have cut out a tomb for yourself here.
    • You cut your tomb on the height.
    • You carved a dwelling for yourself in the rock.
17. 22:17
    • The LORD is about to hurl you away violently.
    • The one addressed is called a man of strength, or else the hurling is called mighty; the wording allows either.
    • The LORD will wrap you up, or else grasp you firmly; the wording allows either.
18. 22:18
    • He will wind you tightly and throw you like a ball into a wide land.
    • There you will die.
    • There the chariots of your glory will be.
    • They are a disgrace to the house of your master.
19. 22:19
    • I will thrust you from your post.
    • He will pull you down from your position.
20. 22:20
    • In that day I will call my servant Eliakim.
    • Eliakim is the son of Hilkiah.
21. 22:21
    • I will clothe him with your robe.
    • I will fasten your sash on him.
    • I will put your authority into his hand.
    • He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
    • He will be a father to the house of Judah.
22. 22:22
    • I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder.
    • He will open, and no one will shut.
    • He will shut, and no one will open.
23. 22:23
    • I will drive him in like a peg in a firm place.
    • He will become a throne of glory for his father's house.
24. 22:24
    • They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house.
    • This includes the offspring and the offshoots.
    • This includes all the small vessels.
    • This ranges from the bowls to all the jars.
25. 22:25
    • In that day the peg driven into the firm place will give way.
    • It will be cut down and fall.
    • The burden that was on it will be cut off.
    • The LORD of hosts declares this.
    • The LORD has spoken it.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1

"Burden" translates a Hebrew word (massa) used for a formal prophetic pronouncement, usually a threatening one; the same word also means a load that is carried, and the chapter plays on that double sense at its close (verse 25). "Valley of Vision" is not a known place name; from what follows it stands for Jerusalem, a city set among hills and ravines and the place where prophets received visions. Houses had flat roofs used as extra living space, so a whole population going up on the rooftops means everyone climbing up to look out, at an approaching army, or to celebrate.

22:2

That the dead were not killed by the sword or in battle points to death from starvation and disease during a siege, or to men cut down while fleeing rather than while fighting.

22:3

The Hebrew phrase is compressed and can be taken two ways: that the rulers were captured by archers, or that they were captured without a bow being drawn, that is, without any fight at all. Ancient texts and translations divide on it.

22:4

"The daughter of my people" is a standard Hebrew way of speaking of a nation or a city as a single woman, an affectionate and grieving form of address rather than a reference to any individual.

22:5

"LORD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which Hebrew writes with four consonants and which readers traditionally replaced when reading aloud with the word for "Lord." "Of Armies" (older translations: "of hosts") describes him as commander of massed forces, armies, or the heavenly bodies and powers.

22:6

Elam was a kingdom east of Babylonia, in what is now western Iran; Kir was a region whose location is no longer certain. Both supplied troops to the great Mesopotamian empires, so they appear here as contingents in the invading army. Shields were carried in leather covers on the march and uncovered for battle, so "took the covers off" means the attack was about to begin.

22:7

A chariot was a light cart pulled by fast horses, with a driver and a fighter riding in it. Chariots were the strongest weapon an army had.

22:8

The "House of the Forest" was a large hall in the palace complex in Jerusalem, named for its rows of cedar pillars that looked like a forest; it was used, among other things, to store weapons and ceremonial shields.

22:9

The "City of David" was the oldest fortified core of Jerusalem, the ridge captured and settled by David, south of the temple area. Collecting water from the lower pool was siege preparation: securing the water supply inside the walls and denying it to an attacker.

22:10

They knocked houses down to get the stones. Then they used those stones to patch the wall.

22:11

The "two walls" and the old pool refer to Jerusalem's water works at the southern end of the city. Because springs lay outside the walls, kings cut channels and reservoirs to bring water inside before a siege. The point of the verse is the contrast between the engineering and the one who is credited with making the water source in the first place.

22:12

Shaving the head bald and wearing sackcloth were public, visible mourning rites, done at funerals and at national disasters; the call is for the city to hold what amounts to a state mourning.

22:13

Slaughtering cattle and sheep means holding feasts, since meat was eaten mainly on festive occasions. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" was a proverbial saying of people who have given up on the future; it is quoted again in the New Testament.

22:14

"Wiped away" translates the vocabulary of atonement, the removal or covering over of guilt, normally accomplished through sacrifice. To say the sin will not be wiped away until they die is to say that no ritual remedy will be available for it.

22:15

Shebna's title, literally "the one over the house," was the highest office under the king: royal steward, in charge of the palace and effectively the head of the government. The Hebrew term rendered "treasurer" in older translations refers to a chief administrator.

22:16

Tombs for the wealthy were chambers chiselled out of solid rock, often high on a hillside, and were extremely expensive; they were normally family tombs on family land. The double question "what are you doing here, and who is here belonging to you" suggests Shebna has no ancestral claim to the ground: he may be an outsider, and is building himself a monument above his station. A tomb cut high in the rock face outside Jerusalem carries an inscription naming a royal steward, and some scholars have connected it with this man.

22:17

The Hebrew here is difficult and can be read either as an ironic form of address to Shebna, "O mighty man," or as describing the force of the throw. Translations divide on it. What follows keeps the image of a man bundled up and flung a long distance.

22:18

The "wide, open land" means exile in a distant country, the broad plains of Mesopotamia, from which he will not return. His chariots were a display of rank, so their ending up abandoned abroad shames the king he served.

22:21

The robe and the sash were the insignia of the office, not just clothing; dressing a man in them was the act that installed him. "A father to" the people is standard ancient language for a protective official or patron, not a family relationship.

22:22

Ancient door keys were large wooden or metal bars, big enough to be carried over the shoulder on a strap. The key of the royal house stands for control of access to the king and to the palace stores, the steward's defining power.

22:23

The image is not a small nail but a stout peg driven into a wall or into the ground, of the kind used to hold up a tent or to hang heavy household goods on.

22:24

Continuing the peg image: everything the family owns is hung on him. "Children and descendants" and the range of vessels from small bowls to big storage jars stand for the whole extended household, of every rank, depending on his position for their living.

22:25

The load finally pulls the peg out of the wall. The word for "load" here is the same word translated "burden" in verse 1, closing the chapter on the term it opened with.