“The oracle concerning the valley of Hinnom.
What do you mean
That you have gone up,
All of you,
To the housetops?
You who are full of shouting!
You are a tumultuous city!
You are an exultant town!
Your slain are not slain
By the sword!
Nor are they dead in battle!
Your rulers have fled together.
They were captured
Without the use of a bow.
All of you who were found
Were captured,
Though they had fled far away.
Therefore I said.
‘Look away from me!
Let me weep bitter tears!
Do not try to comfort me!
There is the destruction
Of my beloved people.’”
The valley of Hinnom, just south of the walls of Jerusalem, appears 11 times in the biblical writings. In the Christian biblical writings of the first century CE it is usually referred to as Gehenna with its almost eternal fire for the wicked ones. However, the context here is the terrible situation inside of Jerusalem. People were on the housetops shouting. They were dying, but not from the sword or in battles. The rulers had fled to escape, since they were captured by the Assyrians, either in 711 or 705 BCE. Then the oracle of Yahweh, via Isaiah, told the people to look away. He wanted to weep bitter tears over the destruction of his beloved people in Jerusalem.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 