1. Valley of Vision. Attempts to identify this place have been unavailing, though since this prophecy concerns Jerusalem, it seems likely that this is a valley in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

What is wrong with you that you go up, / . . . to the rooftops. Going up to the rooftops, perhaps to conduct parties in the fine weather, is part of the reveling of the city, unmindful of the disaster about to overtake it.

2. Your slain are not slain by the sword. The reference is unclear. Perhaps, with the military commanders having run off (verse 3), there has been internecine fighting among the remaining population, resulting in deaths.

3. without bows. The Hebrew seems to say “from bows” or “by bows,” but the prefix mi sometimes has the sense of “without.” This would accord with “your slain are not slain by the sword.”

4. my People’s Daughter. People, city, and land are often figured as a “daughter” or “young woman.”

5. turmoil and trampling and tumult. The translation emulates the strong alliteration (but not the rhyming) of the Hebrew mehumah umevusah umevukhah.

Kir crashes about. This is again sound-play in the Hebrew: qir meqarqer. Kir, Shoa, and Elam are far to the east, and perhaps they are imagined—whether accurately or not—as contingents in the attacking Assyrian army.

8. the cover of Judah was exposed. The term for “cover,” masakh, is used for the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. This has led some scholars to a theological interpretation: God’s protective cover has been taken away. Others see a reference to a fortress protecting the approach to Jerusalem.

the weapon-store of the Forest House. The Forest House was a cedar-paneled armory within the palace (see 1 Kings 7:2–5, where it is called the Lebanon Forest House). The weapons kept there appear to have been ornamental, but in the desperation of the siege, here they are taken up for use in combat.

9. you collected the waters of the Lower Pool. Under siege, maintaining a source of water was vital for survival. A tunnel was built—many still think, by Hezekiah, king at this time—to bring in the water of the Siloam brook into the city.

11. Him Who did it, /. . . its Fashioner from afar. The people who undertook these emergency measures in time of siege assumed it was their own doing and failed to recognize that God, unseen (“from afar”), was directing them.

12. shaved heads. Whether or not the Israelites made this pagan gesture of mourning part of their own practice, it is an inseparable part of the poetic language of mourning.

13. And, look—gladness and joy. The Jerusalemites, instead of recognizing that they are facing catastrophe, continue their revels (going up to the rooftops), making the famous declaration that would become proverbial, “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

14. This crime shall not be atoned for you / until you die. Many scholars conclude that this entire prophecy refers to Sennacherib’s assault on Jerusalem in 701 B.C.E. After ravaging the countryside and destroying many of the towns (see chapter 1), his army laid siege against Jerusalem but then suddenly departed (see 2 Kings 19). If this is in fact the event in view here, Isaiah is taking the position that the city will yet feel the weight of a terrible divine justice.

15. Thus said the Master LORD of Armies. These words signal the beginning of a new prophecy, directed to Shebna, a high palace official (“who is over the house,” that is, the house of the king or the palace). Shebna appears in the narrative of the siege in 2 Kings 19; however, there he is assigned a different title.

16. hewed yourself here a tomb. Tombs for the aristocracy were typically in niches or caves.

18. wind you round like a turban. Others understand this as “fling like a ball,” but the Hebrew verb ts-n-f clearly means to wind round, not to fling, and the end of the previous line with the verb “to wrap” supports the sense of a garment. In light of this context, the translation of verse 17 adopts a proposed emendation of the Masoretic gever, “man,” which appears after “shakes,” to begged, “garment.”

19. your station / . . . your stand. These terms are a direct reference to Shebna’s position in the palace bureaucracy.

21. I shall clothe him. The reference here to the robe and sash of royal office is surely meant to pick up the negative garment metaphors of verses 17–18.

a father. This is a term of political authority.

22. the key . . . on his shoulder. These ancient keys were very large, and usually wooden, so placing a key on a shoulder, perhaps held by a strap, would make sense.

the house of David. This is the royal palace.

23. a seat of honor for his father’s house. These words are a pointed antithesis to the depiction of the exiled Shebna in verse 18, “the chariots of your honor / shall be the shame of your mother’s house.”

24. the offspring and the sprouts. There is some doubt about the meaning of both Hebrew nouns, especially the second one.

25. the peg affixed in a solid place shall give way. This entire verse is a blatant contradiction of the glowing prophecy concerning Eliakim’s displacement of Shebna, and one must conclude that a later editor, aware of a disaster that had befallen Eliakim, added these dire words.