New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,
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The word about the valley of vision. Why have all your people gone up to the house-tops?
2 you that are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain by the sword, nor are they dead in battle.
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You, who are full of loud voices, a town of outcries, given up to joy; your dead men have not been put to the sword, or come to their death in war.
3 Your rulers have all fled together; they were captured without the use of a bow. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.
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All your rulers ... have gone in flight; all your strong ones have gone far away.
4 Therefore I said: Look away from me, let me weep bitter tears; do not try to comfort me for the destruction of my beloved people.
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For this cause I have said, Let your eyes be turned away from me in my bitter weeping; I will not be comforted for the wasting of the daughter of my people.
5 For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a cry for help to the mountains.
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For it is a day of trouble and of crushing down and of destruction from the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the valley of vision; ...
6 Elam bore the quiver with chariots and cavalry, and Kir uncovered the shield.
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And Elam was armed with arrows, and Aram came on horseback; and the breastplate of Kir was uncovered.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the cavalry took their stand at the gates.
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And your most fertile valleys were full of war-carriages, and the horsemen took up their positions in front of the town.
8 He has taken away the covering of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,
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He took away the cover of Judah; and in that day you were looking with care at the store of arms in the house of the woods.
9 and you saw that there were many breaches in the city of David, and you collected the waters of the lower pool.
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And you saw all the broken places in the wall of the town of David: and you got together the waters of the lower pool.
10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
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And you had the houses of Jerusalem numbered, pulling down the houses to make the wall stronger.
11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago.
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And you made a place between the two walls for storing the waters of the old pool: but you gave no thought to him who had done this, and were not looking to him by whom it had been purposed long before.
12 In that day the Lord God of hosts called to weeping and mourning, to baldness and putting on sackcloth;
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And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was looking for weeping, and cries of sorrow, cutting off of the hair, and putting on the clothing of grief:
13 but instead there was joy and festivity, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
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But in place of these there was joy and delight, oxen and sheep were being made ready for food, there was feasting and drinking: men said, Now is the time for food and wine, for tomorrow death comes.
14 The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord God of hosts.
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And the Lord of armies said to me secretly, Truly, this sin will not be taken from you till your death, says the Lord, the Lord of armies.
15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts: Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him:
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The Lord, the Lord of armies, says, Go to this person in authority, this Shebna, who is over the house; who has made himself a resting-place on high, cutting out a place for himself in the rock, and say,
16 What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb on the height, and carving a habitation for yourself in the rock?
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Who are you, and by what right have you made for yourself a resting-place here?
17 The Lord is about to hurl you away violently, my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you,
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See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently away, gripping you with force,
18 whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there your splendid chariots shall lie, O you disgrace to your master's house!
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Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send you out into a wide country: there you will come to your end, and there will be the carriages of your pride, O shame of your lord's house!
19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.
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And I will have you forced out of your place of authority, and pulled down from your position.
20 On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah,
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And in that day I will send for my servant, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah:
21 and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
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And I will put your robe on him, and put your band about him, and I will give your authority into his hand: and he will be a father to the men of Jerusalem, and to the family of Judah.
22 I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.
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And I will give the key of the family of David into his care; and what he keeps open will be shut by no one, and what he keeps shut no one will make open.
23 I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house.
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And I will put him like a nail in a safe place; and he will be for a seat of glory to his father's family.
24 And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.
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And all the glory of his father's family will be hanging on him, all their offspring, every small vessel, even the cups and the basins.
25 On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the Lord has spoken.
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In that day, says the Lord of armies, will the nail fixed in a safe place give way; and it will be cut down, and in its fall the weight hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has said it.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.