Isaiah 22:5

"For it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains. And Elam bare the quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. And it came to pass that thy choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. And he took away the covering of Judah; and thou didst look in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. And ye saw the breaches of the city of David, that there were many; and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool; and ye numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and ye brake down the houses to fortify the wall; ye made also a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But ye looked not unto him that had done this, neither had ye respect unto him that purposed it long ago."

The Babylonian destruction is certainly in view here, for Sennacherib did not break down the walls and destroy the people; but a number of the facts mentioned here apply to the preparations Hezekiah made at a far earlier time when he built a conduit for the water and made other urgent preparations for the assault of Sennacherib. Why? Isaiah strongly implies that the preparations Judah will make for that ultimate destruction will be just like those of Hezekiah, that is, they will depend more upon their own ingenuity and diligence than upon the blessing of Jehovah. That it is actually the "destruction" of Jerusalem that will take place in the event prophesied here is indicated by the words, "God took away the covering of Judah" (Isaiah 22:8), a disaster that did not take place during Sennacherib's siege, but in that of Babylon. As Kidner put it, "Isaiah with characteristic long sight foretells the fall of Jerusalem a century away (586 B.C.)."[8]