Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Valley of Vision
Isaiah 22:1-14
1 The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops? · WEB
A city under siege does everything competent and never asks the one question, and holds a party instead.
The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops? Isaiah 22:1.
The oracle in the middle of the foreign nations is addressed to Jerusalem, which is the point of putting it there. The roofs are full of people, and the chapter opens by asking why.
You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle Isaiah 22:2.
The city is celebrating and its dead did not die fighting. They died of famine or plague inside the walls, which is what a siege actually kills people with.
All your rulers fled away together Isaiah 22:3.
Therefore I said, "Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don't labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people" Isaiah 22:4.
The prophet refuses consolation in the middle of a party. He is the only person in the chapter behaving as the situation warrants.
You looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. You saw the breaches of David's city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between the two walls Isaiah 22:8–11.
Five verbs of competent emergency management, and every one of them was the right thing to do. They inventoried the armory, surveyed the walls, secured the water supply, surveyed the housing stock, demolished houses for building material, and built a reservoir. Hezekiah's tunnel and the pool are archaeological facts.
But you didn't look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who planned it long ago Isaiah 22:11.
The indictment is the whole chapter and it is aimed at nothing they did. They looked at the armory and the walls and the water; they did not look at the one who had arranged the crisis. Competence is not being criticized — the omission is.
In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; and behold, there is joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine Isaiah 22:12–13.
Two lists set against each other. What was called for, and what happened. The city held a feast, and the meat it ate was the breeding stock it would need afterward.
"Let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die."
The slogan is quoted, and Paul quotes it again as the logical position of anyone who does not believe in the resurrection 1 Corinthians 15:32. It is not stupidity; it is a conclusion, correctly drawn from a premise this chapter says was wrong.
Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die Isaiah 22:14.
The severest sentence in the oracles, and it falls on Jerusalem rather than on any foreign nation.
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