Jeremiah 22
1Thus said GOD: Go down to the palace of the king of Judah, where you shall utter this word.
2Say: “Hear the word of GOD: O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, and your courtiers and your subjects who enter these gates!
3Thus said GOD: Do what is just and right; rescue from the defrauder anyone who is robbed; do not wrong the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; commit no lawless act, and do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place.
4For if you fulfill this command, then through the gates of this palace shall enter kings of David’s line who sit upon his throne, riding horse-drawn chariots, with their courtiers and their subjects.
5But if you do not heed these commands, I swear by Myself—declares GOD—that this palace shall become a ruin.”
6For thus said GOD concerning the royal palace of Judah:You are as Gilead to Me,As the summit of Lebanon;But I will make you a desert,Uninhabited towns.
7I will appoint destroyers against you,Each with his tools;They shall cut down your choicest cedarsAnd make them fall into the fire.
8And when many nations pass by this city and people ask one another, “Why did GOD do thus to that great city?”
9the reply will be, “Because they forsook the covenant with the ETERNAL their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.”
10Do not weep for the dead And do not lament for him;Weep rather for him who is leaving, For he shall never come backTo see the land of his birth!
11For thus said GOD concerning Shallum son of King Josiah of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah as king, but who has gone forth from this place: He shall never come back.
12He shall die in the place to which he was exiled, and he shall not see this land again.
13Ha! He who builds his house with unfairnessAnd his upper chambers with injustice,Who makes his neighbors work without payAnd does not give them their wages,
14Who thinks: I will build me a vast palaceWith spacious upper chambers,Provided with windows,Paneled in cedar,Painted with vermilion!
15Do you think you are more a kingBecause you compete in cedar?Your father ate and drank And dispensed justice and equity—Then all went well with him.
16He upheld the rights of the poor and needy—Then all was well.That is truly heeding Me —declares GOD.
17But your eyes and your mind are onlyOn ill-gotten gains,On shedding the blood of the innocent,On committing fraud and violence.
18Assuredly, thus said GOD concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:They shall not mourn for him,“Ah, brother! Ah, sister!” They shall not mourn for him,“Ah, lord! Ah, his majesty!”
19He shall have the burial of a donkey,Dragged out and left lyingOutside the gates of Jerusalem.
20Climb Lebanon and cry out,Raise your voice in Bashan,Cry out from Abarim,For all your lovers are crushed.
21I spoke to you when you were prosperous;You said, “I will not listen.”That was your way ever since your youth,You would not heed Me.
22All your shepherds shall be devoured by the wind,And your lovers shall go into captivity.Then you shall be shamed and humiliatedBecause of all your depravity.
23You who dwell in Lebanon,Nestled among the cedars,How much grace will you have When pains come upon you,Travail as in childbirth!
24As I live—declares GOD—if you, O King Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, of Judah, were a signet on my right hand, I would tear you off even from there.
25I will deliver you into the hands of those who seek your life, into the hands of those you dread, into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and into the hands of the Chaldeans.
26I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another land, where you were not born; there you shall both die.
27They shall not return to the land that they yearn to come back to.
28Is this man ConiahA wretched broken pot,A vessel no one wants?Why are he and his offspring hurled out,And cast away in a land they knew not?
29O land, land, land,Hear the word of GOD!
30Thus said GOD:Record this man as without succession,One who shall never be found acceptable;For none of his offspring shall be acceptedTo sit on the throne of DavidAnd to rule again in Judah.