Rhyming Isaiah, Chapter 22

Rhyming Isaiah, Chapter 22

This oracle, ‘bout “Vision’s Valley,” is.

Tell me, what with you now has gone amiss,
to be up on the rooftops, for you all,
you city, full of tumult, it exults,
you town? It wasn’t by the sword they fell,
your slain, nor were your dead, in battle, killed.
Your rulers all together, they have fled;
they, captured, were, without a bow, its use.
Those who were found were captured, all of you,
though you, in all directions, had dispersed.
At this I ask you, From me, your eyes, turn
away, and let me weep in misery
and do not, consolation, press on me,
for how my people’s ruin is complete.

For the Lord God of Hosts, what he ordained,
confusion, tumult, tram’pling, of, a day,
in “Vision’s Valley,” how the walls crash down,
and cries for help, they lift up to the mount.
Both chariots, the quiver, Elam bore,
and cavalry, and Kir, his shield is bared.
Your valleys, choice, are filled with chariots,
and you have horsemen posted at the gates.
The heart of Judah’s defense, open, lays.

In the House of the Forest, on that day,
you, to the weapons stored there, turned, your gaze.
In David’s city, what it is you knew,
how many breaches in its walls you saw,
and waters you collected in the pool,
the lower one. Surveyed them all, how you,
the houses of Jerusalem, and some,
to fortify the wall, down, you broke them.
You made a reservoir ‘tween the two walls
so that it filled with water, the old pool.
But to the city’s maker you did not
look to him who had long ago built it.

The Lord, the GOD of Hosts, in that day called
on you to weep and mourn and shave your heads
and put on sackcloth; but there was instead,
joy and festivity, and butchering
of cattle, sheep, was, of them, slaughtering,
they’re eating meat and also drinking wine.
“Let’s eat and drink, tomorrow, for, we die.”
The LORD of Hosts, himself, he has revealed,
in my ears: Surely this iniquity
till you die never will, forgiven, be.
This is the Lord’s word, his, the LORD of Hosts.

The GOD of Hosts, the Lord, says thus: Come, go
and find that steward who’s, as Shebna, known,
the palace master, him, of this apprise:
What do you own here, who gave you the right
to for yourself a tomb cut in the height,
to carve a habitation in the rock
yourself, for? How the LORD’s about to shake
you out just as you would lice from a coat.
He, tightly up, you, is about to roll,
and to a land of vast expanse, he will
throw you just like a ball. There you will die
and there your splendid chariots shall lie,
O you who have disgraced your master’s house!
I from your office will you outwards thrust,
and you will be pulled downwards from your post.

My servant, I’ll send for, that day, upon,
Eliakim, of Hilkiah, the son
and with your robe, I’ll cloth him in that way,
and I will tie your sash around his waist.
With your authority, I’ll him invest,
and he shall be a father to all them,
inhabitants, those of Jerusalem,
and to the house of Judah. I will place,
his shoulder, on, the key to David’s house.
Just like a peg, in place, I will drive him
securely, and, of honor, he, a throne,
to his ancestral house, what he’ll become.
And, his ancestral house, of, the weight, whole,
descendants, offspring, on him, both, they’ll hang,
all of the little dishes, bowls to jugs.
On that day, says the LORD of Hosts, the peg
that was securely drove in place, that way,
will be removed; cut off, how it will fail,
destroyed, that what was hung on it, the load,
for all these words were spoken by the LORD.