< Jeremiah 22 >
1 Thus said Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
2 and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, who sits upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people who enter in by these gates.
3 Thus says Jehovah: Execute ye justice and righteousness. And deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. And do no wrong. Do no violence to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if ye do this thing indeed, then there shall enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
5 But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says Jehovah, that this house shall become a desolation.
6 For thus says Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou are Gilead to me, and the head of Lebanon, yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.
7 And I will prepare destroyers against thee, each one with his weapons, and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8 And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say each man to his neighbor, Why has Jehovah done thus to this great city?
9 Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.
10 Weep ye not for him who is dead, nor bemoan him. But weep greatly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For thus says Jehovah concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went forth out of this place: He shall not return there any more.
12 But in the place where they have led him captive, there he shall die, and he shall see this land no more.
13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor's service without wages, and gives him not his hire,
14 who says, I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers, and cuts out windows for himself, and it is overlaid with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
15 Shall thou reign, because thou strive to excel in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy man, then it was well. Was not this to know me? says Jehovah.
17 But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
18 Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah. They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! They shall not lament for him, saying Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
19 He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry. And lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim. For all thy lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to thee in thy prosperity, but thou said, I will not hear. This has been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyed not my voice.
22 The wind shall feed all thy shepherds, and thy loved ones shall go into captivity. Surely then thou shall be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes thy nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied thou shall be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
24 As I live, says Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet I would pluck thee from there,
25 and I will give thee into the hand of those who seek thy life, and into the hand of those of whom thou are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 And I will cast thee out, and thy mother who bore thee, into another country where ye were not born, and there ye shall die.
27 But to the land to which their soul longs to return, there they shall not return.
28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which none delights? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah.
30 Thus says Jehovah: Write ye this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days. For no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.
