Jeremiah 22

1 This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there,

Thus says the Lord; Go you, and go down to the house of the king of Juda, and you shall speak there this word,

2 saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David—you and your officials and your people who enter these gates.

and you shall say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Juda, that sit on the throne of David, you, and your house, and your people, and they that go in at these gates:

3 This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.

thus says the Lord; Execute you judgement and justice, and rescue the spoiled out of the hand of him that wrongs him: and oppress not the stranger, and orphan, and widow, and sin not, and shed no innocent blood in this place.

4 For if you will indeed carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this palace riding on chariots and horses—they and their officials and their people.

For if you will indeed perform this word, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, and riding on chariots and horses, they, and their servants, and their people.

5 But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by Myself, declares the LORD, that this house will become a pile of rubble.’”

But if you will not perform these words, by myself have I sworn, says the Lord, that this house shall be [brought] to desolation.

6 For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are like Gilead to Me, like the summit of Lebanon; but I will surely turn you into a desert, like cities that are uninhabited.

For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Juda; You are Galaad to me, [and] the head of Libanus: [yet] surely I will make you a desert, [even] cities that shall not be inhabited:

7 I will appoint destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut down the choicest of your cedars and throw them into the fire.

and I will bring upon you a destroying man, and his axe: and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast [them] into the fire.

8 And many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’

And nations shall pass through this city, and each shall say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done thus to this great city?

9 Then people will reply, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”

And they shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped strange gods, and served them.

10 Do not weep for the dead king; do not mourn his loss. Weep bitterly for the one who is exiled, for he will never return to see his native land.

Weep not for the dead, nor lament for him: weep bitterly for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native land.

11 For this is what the LORD says concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah but has gone forth from this place: “He will never return,

For thus says the Lord concerning Sellem the son of Josias, who reigns in the place of Josias his father, who has gone forth out of this place; He shall not return there any more:

12 but he will die in the place to which he was exiled; he will never see this land again.”

but in that place whither I have carried him captive, there shall he die, and shall see this land no more.

13 “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,

He that builds his house not with justice, and his upper chambers not with judgement, who works by means of his neighbour for nothing, and will by no means give him his reward.

14 who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion.

You have built for yourself a well-proportioned house, airy chambers, fitted with windows, and wainscoted with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

15 Does it make you a king to excel in cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He administered justice and righteousness, and so it went well with him.

Shall you reign, because you are provoked with your father Achaz? they shall not eat, and they shall not drink: it is better for you to execute judgement and justice.

16 He took up the cause of the poor and needy, and so it went well with him. Is this not what it means to know Me?” declares the LORD.

They understood not, they judged not the cause of the afflicted, nor the cause of the poor: is not this your not knowing me? says the Lord.

17 “But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except your own dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, on practicing extortion and oppression.”

Behold, your eyes are not good, nor your heart, but [they go] after your covetousness, and after the innocent blood to shed it, and after acts of injustice and slaughter, to commit them.

18 Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’

Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Joakim son of Josias, king of Juda, even concerning this man; they shall not bewail him, [saying], Ah brother! neither shall they at all weep for him, [saying], Alas Lord.

19 He will be buried like a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.

He shall be buried with the burial of an ass; he shall be dragged roughly along and cast outside the gate of Jerusalem.

20 Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers have been crushed.

Go up to Libanus, and cry; and utter your voice to Basan, and cry aloud to the extremity of the sea: for all your lovers are destroyed.

21 I warned you when you were secure. You said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from youth, that you have not obeyed My voice.

I spoke to you on [occasion of] your trespass, but you said, I will not listen. This [has been] your way from your youth, you have not listened to my voice.

22 The wind will drive away all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness.

The wind shall tend all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; for then shall you be ashamed and disgraced because of all your lovers.

23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor.”

O you that dwell in Libanus, making your nest in the cedars, you shall groan heavily, when pangs as of a travailing woman are come upon you.

24 “As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would pull you off.

[As] I live, says the Lord, though Jechonias son of Joakim king of Juda were indeed the seal upon my right hand, thence would I pluck you;

25 In fact, I will hand you over to those you dread, who want to take your life—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Chaldeans.

and I will deliver you into the hands of them that seek your life, before whom you are afraid, into the hands of the Chaldeans.

26 I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another land, where neither of you were born—and there you both will die.

And I will cast forth you, and your mother that bore you, into a land where you were not born; and there you shall die.

27 You will never return to the land for which you long.”

But they shall by no means return to the land which they long for in their souls.

28 Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered pot, a jar that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants hurled out and cast into a land they do not know?

Jechonias is dishonoured as a good-for-nothing vessel; for he is thrown out and cast forth into a land which he knew not.

29 O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!

Land, land, hear the word of the Lord.

30 This is what the LORD says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”

Write you this man an outcast: for there shall none of his seed at all grow up to sit on the throne of David, [or as] a prince yet in Juda.