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Isaiah 22

Chapter 22 in 30 seconds

Jerusalem throws a rooftop party while the enemy is at the gate. They count houses to tear down for the wall and dig water tunnels, but never look to God, who planned it all. Their motto: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Then God fires Shebna, a palace official busy carving himself a fancy tomb, and gives the key of David to Eliakim.

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In this chapterThe Big QuestionThe Broad Wall · after verse 10 The Big QuestionThe Siloam Tunnel Inscription · after verse 11 The Big QuestionThe Royal Steward's Tomb · after verse 25

The Valley of Vision

¹This is the burden against the Valley of Vision:

What ails you now,

that you have all gone up to the rooftops,

²O city of commotion,

O town of revelry?

Your slain did not die by the sword,

nor were they killed in battle.

³All your rulers have fled together,

captured without a bow.

All your fugitives were captured together,

having fled to a distant place.

⁴Therefore I said,

“Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly!

Do not try to console me

over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵For the Lord Yahweh of Hosts has set a day

of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision—

of breaking down the walls

and crying to the mountains.

IS 22:5[PROPHECY]A day of trampling and broken walls would come on Jerusalem → 2KI 25:4-10MEDIUM

⁶Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen,

and Kir uncovers the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,

and horsemen are posted at the gates.

⁸He has uncovered

the defenses of Judah.

On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest. ⁹You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool. ¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall. ¹¹You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or consider Him who planned it long ago.

IS 22:10[ARCHAEOLOGY]The Broad Wall
IS 22:11[FIELD NOTES]Hezekiah's tunnel still carries water today. See the Siloam Tunnel Inscription Field Notes page.

The Big Question

The Broad Wall

Isaiah 22:9 to 10 · Nehemiah 3:8 · 2 Chronicles 32:5

WHAT IT IS: A massive city wall of stone, about 23 feet thick. A long stretch of it is still standing in the Old City of Jerusalem.
HOW OLD IT IS: About 701 BC, built in the time of King Hezekiah to get ready for the Assyrian attack. Archaeologists date it by the pottery found with it, and most agree on Hezekiah's time.
WHERE AND WHEN FOUND: The Israeli archaeologist Nahman Avigad found it in 1970 while digging in the Jewish Quarter after the 1967 war.
WHAT WAS UNDER IT: The wall runs right over the floors of older houses. The builders tore down homes that were in the way and used the stones. Isaiah 22:10 says, You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall. The dirt matches the verse.
WHERE IT IS TODAY: Still in place in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, open to visitors, a few feet below the modern street.
WHAT IT CONFIRMS: Jerusalem really did build a huge new wall in Hezekiah's day, and really did knock down houses to do it. Nehemiah 3:8 also mentions a Broad Wall, which is probably the same one.
THE POINT ISAIAH MADE: Isaiah was not against walls. His complaint was that they worked hard on the wall and the water but never looked to the God who made it all (22:11).

CONFIDENCE: HIGH

The Big Question

The Siloam Tunnel Inscription

Isaiah 22:11 · 2 Kings 20:20 · 2 Chronicles 32:30

WHAT IT IS: Six lines of old Hebrew carved into the rock wall of a tunnel under Jerusalem. The tunnel is about 1,750 feet long and still carries water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam. The words tell the moment two teams of diggers, coming from opposite ends, heard each other's voices and broke through. Then the water flowed.
HOW OLD IT IS: About 700 BC. The shape of the letters fits Hezekiah's time. A few scholars once argued for a much later date, but a 2003 radiocarbon study of plant bits in the tunnel plaster pointed to about 700 BC.
WHERE AND WHEN FOUND: In 1880 a boy wading in the tunnel noticed letters on the wall. In 1890 thieves cut it out of the rock and broke it. The pieces were taken to Istanbul, because the Ottoman Turks ruled Jerusalem then.
WHERE IT IS TODAY: The Istanbul Archaeology Museums in Turkey. The tunnel itself is in the City of David in Jerusalem, and you can walk through it in water up to your knees.
WHAT IT CONFIRMS: 2 Kings 20:20 says Hezekiah made the tunnel that brought water into the city, and 2 Chronicles 32:30 says he channeled the Gihon spring down to the west side of the City of David. The tunnel does exactly that. Isaiah 22:11 talks about the same water work.
WHAT IT SAYS: The diggers swung their picks toward each other. When only a short way was left, each team heard the other calling through a crack in the rock. Then they cut through, pick against pick, and the water flowed from the spring to the pool. The inscription says the rock over their heads was about 150 feet thick.
A WINDING PATH: The tunnel does not run straight. It snakes back and forth in an S shape, so it is much longer than a straight line from the spring to the pool. Experts still argue whether the diggers followed a crack in the rock or simply made wrong turns.
IN THE BIBLE TOO: Hezekiah stopped up the springs outside the city so the Assyrian army would find no water, 2 Chronicles 32:3 to 4. 2 Chronicles 32:30 says he brought the water down to the west side of the City of David, so the city had water during the siege.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVE: The inscription never names Hezekiah. The link comes from the date, the place and the Bible's description, which all fit together.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH

¹²On that day the Lord Yahweh of Hosts

called for weeping and wailing,

for shaven heads

and the wearing of sackcloth.

¹³But look, there is joy and gladness,

butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,

eating of meat and drinking of wine:

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

IS 22:13[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → 1CO 15:32

¹⁴Yahweh of Hosts has revealed in my hearing:

“Until your dying day,

this sin of yours will never be atoned for,”

says the Lord Yahweh of Hosts.

A Message for Shebna

¹⁵This is what the Lord Yahweh of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace: ¹⁶What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?

IS 22:15[ARCHAEOLOGY]Tomb inscription of the royal steward

¹⁷Look, O mighty man! Yahweh is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, ¹⁸roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master. ¹⁹I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.

IS 22:19[PROPHECY]Shebna would lose his office and Eliakim would take it → IS 36:3; 2KI 18:18

²⁰On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. ²¹I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²²I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. ²³I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.

IS 22:22[FORESHADOW]Given all authority → REV 3:7
IS 22:22[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → REV 3:7

²⁴So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the lesser vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar.

²⁵In that day, declares Yahweh of Hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and fall, and the load upon it will be cut down.”

Indeed, Yahweh has spoken.

The Big Question

The Royal Steward's Tomb

Isaiah 22:15 to 19 · Isaiah 36:3

WHAT IT IS: A stone panel carved over the door of a tomb cut into the rock in Silwan, the village across the valley from the City of David. It says the tomb belongs to a man who was over the house, the title of the king's palace manager.
HOW OLD IT IS: About 700 BC, judged by the shape of the Hebrew letters.
WHAT IT SAYS: This is the tomb of somebody yahu, who is over the house. There is no silver and no gold here, only his bones and the bones of his slave wife with him. Cursed be the man who opens this.
WHERE AND WHEN FOUND: The French scholar Charles Clermont Ganneau found it in 1870 and had it cut out and shipped to London. Nobody could read the old letters well until Nahman Avigad worked them out in 1953.
WHERE IT IS TODAY: The British Museum in London.
WHY SOME SAY IT IS SHEBNA: Isaiah 22:15 to 16 scolds Shebna, who is over the house, for carving himself a fancy tomb in the rock. Many scholars think Shebna is a short form of Shebanyahu, which would end in yahu just like this broken name.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVE: The first part of the name is broken off, so we cannot be sure it was Shebna. It is a likely match, not a certain one.

CONFIDENCE: MEDIUM

Isaiah 22

The Valley of Vision

A Message for Shebna

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