Jeremiah 22:1–30
22 Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word, 2 and say, a‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates! 3 Thus says the Lord: b“Execute 1judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the cfatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you indeed do this thing, dthen shall enter the gates of this house, riding on horses and in chariots, accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the throne of David. 5 But if you will not 2hear these words, eI swear by Myself,” says the Lord, “that this house shall become a desolation.” ’ ”
6 For thus says the Lord to the house of the king of Judah:
“You are fGilead to Me,
The head of Lebanon;
Yet I surely will make you a wilderness,
Cities which are not inhabited.
7 I will prepare destroyers against you,
Everyone with his weapons;
They shall cut down gyour choice cedars
hAnd cast them into the fire.
8 And many nations will pass by this city; and everyone will say to his neighbor, i‘Why has the Lord done so to this great city?’ 9 Then they will answer, j‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.’ ”
10 Weep not for kthe dead, nor bemoan him;
Weep bitterly for him lwho goes away,
For he shall return no more,
Nor see his native country.
11 For thus says the Lord concerning mShallum 3the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, nwho went from this place: “He shall not return here anymore, 12 but he shall die in the place where they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
13 “Woe oto him who builds his house by unrighteousness
And his 4chambers by injustice,
pWho uses his neighbor’s service without wages
And gives him nothing for his work,
14 Who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house with spacious 5chambers,
And cut out windows for it,
Paneling it with cedar
And painting it with vermilion.’
15 “Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink,
And do justice and righteousness?
Then qit was well with him.
16 He 6judged the cause of the poor and needy;
Then it was well.
Was not this knowing Me?” says the Lord.
17 “Yet ryour eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness,
For shedding innocent blood,
And practicing oppression and violence.”
18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
s“They shall not lament for him,
Saying, t‘Alas, my brother!’ or ‘Alas, my sister!’
They shall not lament for him,
Saying, ‘Alas, master!’ or ‘Alas, his glory!’
19 uHe shall be buried with the burial of a donkey,
Dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,
And lift up your voice in Bashan;
Cry from Abarim,
For all your lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to you in your prosperity,
But you said, ‘I will not hear.’
vThis has been your manner from your youth,
That you did not obey My voice.
22 The wind shall eat up all wyour 7rulers,
And your lovers shall go into captivity;
Surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated
For all your wickedness.
Making your nest in the cedars,
How gracious will you be when pangs come upon you,
Like xthe pain of a woman in 8labor?
24 “As I live,” says the Lord, y“though 9Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, zwere the 1signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off; 25 aand I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear—the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of the 2Chaldeans. 26 bSo I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born; and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they desire to return, there they shall not return.
28 “Is this man 3Coniah a despised, broken idol—
cA vessel in which is no pleasure?
Why are they cast out, he and his descendants,
And cast into a land which they do not know?
29 dO earth, earth, earth,
Hear the word of the Lord!
‘Write this man down as echildless,
A man who shall not prosper in his days;
For fnone of his descendants shall prosper,
Sitting on the throne of David,
And ruling anymore in Judah.’ ”