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Isaiah 22:1

in Isaiah 22

This is the burden against the Valley of Vision: What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?

KJV

The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?

This verse in Isaiah 22

Commentary

12 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 420.

(Chapter 22, Verse 1) The burden of the valley of vision. LXX: The word of the valley of Zion. In the book of Hebrew Names, we have defined Zion as the watchtower that is situated in the heights and contemplates those who come from afar.

This site's exposition

the burden against the Valley of Vision

on Isaiah 22:1-2

Jerusalem is called "the Valley of Vision" because prophecy was given there, though it stands among hills. The prophet asks, "What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops", and Barnes and Delitzsch see citizens watching the enemy. Its slain "did not die by the sword".

The record, by era

The Church Fathers3 voices

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

proposed

In the Greek language, a gift is called δόμα, and in Latin it is called tectum. Furthermore, Magog is interpreted as being uncovered. Therefore, all pride and false knowledge of name, which raises itself against the knowledge of truth, is demonstrated by these names. These are the roofs, about which Isaiah speaks in a vision against the Valley of Zion: "What has happened to you now, since you have all gone up to empty roofs?" And we will interpret the roofs as the leaders of heretics: and we will call those who have received their teachings from the roofs. And beautifully after many mystical prophecies in this volume, the final prophecy is against Gog and Magog.

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 420.

proposed

(Chapter 22—Verse 1) The burden of the Valley of Vision. Although it is not found in Hebrew, they translated it more clearly as the word "Valley of Zion". For this city is the seedbed of prophets, in which the Temple is built, and the visions of the Lord are multiplied. Therefore, because it is compared to other nations and considered one among many, it is not called a mountain, according to the prophecy: Its foundations are on the holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob (Psalm 87:1); but it is called a valley, because it is humbled. In other words, Jeremiah himself says this: when he received a cup full of wine, he gave it to all the nations, and finally he offered it to Jerusalem to drink, vomit, fall, and go crazy, signifying the destruction of Babylon (Jeremiah 25). The history of the kings and Jeremiah explains this more fully. From this, we understand that the creator of all is equally God, and that he judges and dispenses everything according to his will, as he himself says through Amos: Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel? The Lord says: Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom (Amos 9:7). So the Jews should not think that they have a privilege because they were brought out of Egypt, for God also says that other nations were transferred to other lands by his authority. What is also your concern, since you have ascended and fully entered the roofs, the city full of clamor, a crowded city, an exulting state? […]

A commentator

Jerome

HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 45 (PSALM 132) · Written before 420.

proposed

If, as I was saying, we are in the church, if we possess the faith of the church, of the apostles, of Christ, the truths of Christian teaching, we are the mountains of Zion. We do not want to be among the valleys of Zion; we want to be mountains of Zion. Zion, indeed, has its valleys; it has plains, too. The sinner is a valley of Zion, not a mountain. Someone may interpose, "You are giving us your own opinion." Let us call upon the testimony of Isaiah when Zion had fallen into sin, in which after many visions, the prophet mentions one against Idumea, one against Moab, one against Edom and the sons of Ammon, and lastly, "a vision of the valley of Zion." Because Zion had descended from sublime faith, it fell recklessly from the mountain into the valley.Before all else, then, let us flee from the valleys of Zion and come to the plains; from the plains, let us go to the hills, from the hills up the mountains.

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 1274.

proposed

The burden of the valley. Here he threatens against those who were joined to the people of God by right of authority and yet were plundering their goods. And first, as to those to whom pertained authority in temporal affairs; second, against those to whom …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Blessed are their eyes, for they see, and they have seers by office among them. Where Bibles and ministers are there is a valley of vision, from which is expected fruit accordingly; but here is a burden of the valley of vision, and a heavy burden it is. Note, Church privileges, if they be not improved, will not secure men from the judgments of God.
5 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

The burden of the valley of vision,.... A prophecy concerning Jerusalem, so called, because it lay in a valley, encompassed about with mountains, and which was the habitation of the prophets or seers, and the seat of vision and prophecy; and perhaps there is an allusion to its name, which signifies the vision of peace, or they shall see peace.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

A reproof given them for their misconduct in that distress, in two things:-- (1.) Not having an eye to God in the use of the means of their preservation,

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

The burden - (see the note at Isa 13:1). “The valley” גיא gay'. Septuagint, Φάραγγος Pharangos - ‘Valley.’ Chaldee, ‘The burden of the prophecy respecting the city which dwells (that is, is built) in the valley, which the prophets have prophesied concerning it.’ There can be no doubt that Jerusalem is intended (see Isa 22:9-10).

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

of . . . valley of vision--rather, "respecting the valley of visions"; namely, Jerusalem, the seat of divine revelations and visions, "the nursery of prophets" [JEROME], (Isa 2:3;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Art - gone up to the house-tops “Are gone up to the house-tops” - The houses in the east were in ancient times, as they are still, generally, built in one and the same uniform manner. The roof or top of the house is always flat, covered with broad stones, or a strong plaster of terrace, and guarded on every side with a low parapet wall; see Deu 22:8. The terrace is frequented as much as any part of the house. On this, as the season favors, they walk, they eat, they sleep, they transact business, (1Sa 9:25, see also the Septuagint in that place), they perform their devotions Act 10:9. The house is built with a court within, into which chiefly the windows open: those that open to the street are so obstructed with lattice-work that no one either without or within can see through them. Whenever, therefore, any thing is to be seen or heard in the streets, any public spectacle, any alarm of a public nature, every one immediately goes up to the house-top to satisfy his curiosity. In the same manner, when any one has occasion to make any thing public, the readiest and most effectual way of doing it is to proclaim it from the house-tops to the people in the streets. “What ye hear in the ear, that publish ye on the house-top,” saith our Savior, Mat 10:27. The people running all to the tops of their houses gives a lively image of a sudden general alarm. Sir John Chardin’s MS. note on this place is as follows: “Dans les festes pour voir passer quelque chose, et dans les maladies pour les annoncer aux voisins en allumant des lumieres, le peuple monte sur les terrasses.” “In festivals, in order to see what is going forward, and in times of sickness, in order to indicate them to neighbors by lighting of candles, the people go up to the house-tops.”

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

the Valley of Vision This is Jerusalem, the valley concerning which most prophecies were prophesied.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Isaiah 22:1:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
The Burden Of The Prophecy Concerning The City That Dwelleth In The Valley, Of Which The Prophets Prophesied. What aileth you here, that all of you are gone up to the house tops?
Targum · Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 22:1, via Sefaria, London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

10 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • מַשָּׂ֖א[the] oracle of

    masa'H4853 →66 times

  • גֵּ֣יא[the] valley of

    gei'H1516 →59 times

  • חִזָּי֑וֹןvision

    chizayonH2384 →

  • מַה־what?

    mah-H4100 →752 times

  • לָּ֣ךְ[is] to you

    lakh

  • אֵפ֔וֹאthen

    ʾefo'H645 →

  • כִּֽי־that

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • עָלִ֥יתyou have gone up

    ʾalitH5927 →890 times

  • כֻּלָּ֖ךְall of you

    kulakhH3605 →5413 times

  • לַגַּגּֽוֹת׃to the roofs

    lagagotH1406 →30 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 125:2

    As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people, both now and forevermore.

    it leads to

    • Zechariah 2:5

      For I will be a wall of fire around it, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory within it.’”

    • Psalms 121:8

      The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

    • Isaiah 4:5

      Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night. For over all the glory there…

    • John 10:28–29

      I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

    • Deuteronomy 33:27

      The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He drives out the enemy before you, giving the command, ‘Destroy him!’

  • Through

    Joel 3:12

    Let the nations be roused and advance to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit down to judge all the nations on every side.

    it leads to

    • Joel 3:2

      I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning My people, My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Psalms 96:13

      before the LORD, for He is coming— He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.

    • Psalms 98:9

      before the LORD, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About Isaiah

The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 45 (PSALM 132); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.