Bible Strands
Isaiah 22:5
For the Lord GOD 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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Isaiah pronounces this oracle to Judah at the moment the nation faces imminent military collapse, immediately following his refusal to offer false comfort over the coming destruction. The prophecy marks the shift from prophetic mourning to the execution of divine judgment as invading forces close in on Jerusalem.
The words — The Hebrew מְהוּמָה (meḥumā) denotes consternation, and מְבוּכָה (meḥūkā) denotes confusion. These terms describe the Lord’s appointed day of military chaos in the Valley of Vision.
The thread — The motif of a divinely set day of distress recurs in Isaiah 37:3, where Hezekiah acknowledges a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace. The theme of foreign armies executing God's judgment also appears in Isaiah 10:6, where the Lord dispatches an army against a godless nation.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that national collapse is not a random disaster but a deliberate divine appointment. It requires the reader to stop seeking human consolation and confront the reality of God's sovereign judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
- Isaiah 37:3 to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.
- Lamentations 1:5 Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. For the LORD has brought her grief because of her many transgressions. Her children have gone away as captives before the enemy.
- Micah 7:4 The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion.
- Luke 23:30 At that time ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
- Isaiah 22:1 This is the burden against the Valley of Vision: What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops,
- Jeremiah 30:7 How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.
- Lamentations 2:2 Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.
- Hosea 10:8 The high places of Aven will be destroyed—it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
- Amos 5:18 Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.