Jeremiah 22:13–19

Jeremiah’s Message Concerning Jehoiakim

¹³Doomed is the man who builds his house by injustice

and enlarges it by dishonesty;

who makes his countrymen work for nothing

and does not pay their wages.

¹⁴Doomed is the one who says,

“I will build myself a mansion

with spacious rooms upstairs.”

So he puts windows in his house,

panels it with cedar,

and paints it red.

¹⁵Does it make you a better king

if you build houses of cedar,

finer than those of others?

Your father enjoyed a full life.

He was always just and fair,

and he prospered in everything he did.

¹⁶He gave the poor a fair trial, and all went well with him.

That is what it means to know the Lord.

¹⁷But you can only see your selfish interests;

you kill the innocent

and violently oppress your people.

The Lord has spoken.

^18*So then, the Lord says about Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah,

“No one will mourn his death or say,

‘How terrible, my friend, how terrible!’

No one will weep for him or cry,

‘My lord! My king!’

¹⁹With the funeral honours of a donkey,

he will be dragged away

and thrown outside Jerusalem’s gates.”