This is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “Go visit this administrator, Shebna, who supervises the palace, ¹  and tell him: ² 

Come through! Come through the gates! Prepare the way for the people! Build it! Build the roadway! Remove the stones! Lift a signal flag for the nations!

The Lord who commands armies is about to beat them ¹  with a whip, similar to the way he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb. ²  He will use his staff against the sea, lifting it up as he did in Egypt. ³ 

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief ¹  and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.

When the news reaches Egypt, they will be shaken by what has happened to Tyre. ¹ 

Daughter Tarshish, travel back to your land, as one crosses the Nile; there is no longer any marketplace in Tyre. ¹ 

A thoroughfare will be there – it will be called the Way of Holiness. ¹  The unclean will not travel on it; it is reserved for those authorized to use it ²  – fools ³  will not stray into it.

“As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, ¹  when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood ²  would never again cover the earth. In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.

Those who see you stare at you, they look at you carefully, thinking: ¹  “Is this the man who shook the earth, the one who made kingdoms tremble?

Why do you say, Jacob, Why do you say, Israel, “The Lord is not aware of what is happening to me, ¹  My God is not concerned with my vindication”? ² 

They do not comprehend or understand, for their eyes are blind and cannot see; their minds do not discern. ¹ 

They ¹  lift their voices and shout joyfully; they praise ²  the majesty of the Lord in the west.

I, the Lord, protect it; ¹  I water it regularly. ²  I guard it night and day, so no one can harm it. ³ 

A craftsman casts ¹  an idol; a metalsmith overlays it with gold and forges silver chains for it.

Sheol ¹  below is stirred up about you, ready to meet you when you arrive. It rouses ²  the spirits of the dead for you, all the former leaders of the earth; ³  it makes all the former kings of the nations rise from their thrones. ⁴ 

For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted, and the ripening fruit appears, ¹  he will cut off the unproductive shoots ²  with pruning knives; he will prune the tendrils. ³ 

So the Lord’s word to them will sound like meaningless gibberish, senseless babbling, a syllable here, a syllable there. ¹  As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk, ²  and be injured, ensnared, and captured. ³ 

When you pass through the waters, I am with you; when you pass ¹  through the streams, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not harm ²  you.

They say, “Let’s attack Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it. ¹  Then we’ll set up the son of Tabeel as its king.” ² 

So I say: “Don’t look at me! ¹  I am weeping bitterly. Don’t try ²  to console me concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.” ³