Jeremiah 22
1 This is what the Lord has said: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and there give him this word,
Thus said the Lord, Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word;
2 And say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, seated on the seat of David, you and your servants and your people who come in by these doors.
And thou shalt say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:
3 This is what the Lord has said: Do what is right, judging uprightly, and make free from the hands of the cruel one him whose goods have been violently taken away: do no wrong and be not violent to the man from a strange country and the child without a father and the widow, and let not those who have done no wrong be put to death in this place.
Thus hath said the Lord, Execute ye justice and righteousness, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor; and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow shall ye not oppress, and do them no violence, and shed no innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you truly do this, then there will come in through the doors of this house kings seated on the seat of David, going in carriages and on horseback, he and his servants and his people
For if ye indeed will do this thing, then shall enter in through the gates of this house kings sitting after David upon his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
5 But if you do not give ear to these words, I give you my oath by myself, says the Lord, that this house will become a waste.
But if ye will not hear these words, then do I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a ruin.
6 For this is what the Lord has said about the family of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, and the top of Lebanon: but, truly, I will make you waste, with towns unpeopled.
For thus hath said the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah, A Gil'ad [though] thou art unto me, a summit of the Lebanon: yet I will surely change thee into a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.
7 And I will make ready those who will send destruction on you, everyone armed for war: by them your best cedar-trees will be cut down and put in the fire.
And I will make ready against thee destroyers, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down the choice of thy cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8 And nations from all sides will go past this town, and every man will say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done such things to this great town?
And [when] many nations [then] pass by this city, they will say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore hath the Lord done the like unto this great city?
9 And they will say, Because they gave up the agreement of the Lord their God, and became worshippers and servants of other gods.
Then shall they say, Because they had forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and bowed down unto other gods, and served them.
10 Let there be no weeping for the dead, and make no songs of grief for him: but make bitter weeping for him who has gone away, for he will never come back or see again the country of his birth.
Weep not for the dead, and do not bemoan him: weep sorely for him that goeth away; for he shall never return any more, and see the land of his birth.
11 For this is what the Lord has said about Shallum, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He will never come back there again:
For thus hath said the Lord respecting Shallum the son of Josiah the king of Judah, who reigneth in the place of Josiah his father, who is gone forth out of this place, He shall never return thither any more;
12 But death will come to him in the place where they have taken him away prisoner, and he will never see this land again.
But in the place whither they have led him into exile, there shall he die; but this land shall he not see any more.
13 A curse is on him who is building his house by wrongdoing, and his rooms by doing what is not right; who makes use of his neighbour without payment, and gives him nothing for his work;
Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that maketh his neighbor work without wages, and giveth him not the reward for his labor;
14 Who says, I will make a wide house for myself, and rooms of great size, and has windows cut out, and has it roofed with cedar and painted with bright red.
That saith, I will build me a roomy house, and ample chambers, and cutteth himself out windows, and ceileth it with cedar, and painteth it with colors.
15 Are you to be a king because you make more use of cedar than your father? did not your father take food and drink and do right, judging in righteousness, and then it was well for him?
Shalt thou reign, because thou strivest to excel with cedar buildings? behold, thy father ate and drank, but he executed justice and righteousness: then was it well with him!
16 He was judge in the cause of the poor and those in need; then it was well. Was not this to have knowledge of me? says the Lord.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then was it well: is not this the proper knowledge of me? saith the Lord.
17 But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts.
But thy eyes and thy heart are directed on nothing but upon thy own gain, and upon innocent blood to shed it, and upon oppression, and upon extortion, to practise them.
18 So this is what the Lord has said about Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Therefore thus hath said the Lord concerning Jehoyakim the son of Josiah the king of Judah, They shall not lament for him, with, “Woe, my brother!” and, “Woe, sister!” they shall not lament for him, with “Woe, lord!” and, “Woe, to his glory!”
19 They will do to him what they do to the dead body of an ass; his body will be pulled out and placed on the earth outside the doors of Jerusalem.
With the burial of an ass shall he be buried, dragged about and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon and give a cry; let your voice be loud in Bashan, crying out from Abarim; for all your lovers have come to destruction
Ascend the Lebanon, and cry aloud; and let thy voice resound in Bashan; and cry aloud from 'Aharim; for crushed are all thy lovers.
21 My word came to you in the time of your well-being; but you said, I will not give ear. This has been your way from your earliest years, you did not give attention to my voice.
I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy very youth, that thou didst not hearken to my voice.
22 All the keepers of your sheep will be food for the wind, and your lovers will be taken away prisoners: truly, then you will be shamed and unhonoured because of all your evil-doing.
The wind shall scatter abroad all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded because of all thy wickedness.
23 O you who are living in Lebanon, making your living-place in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied will you be when pains come on you, as on a woman in childbirth!
O inhabitress of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how full of grace wilt thou be! when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
24 By my life, says the Lord, even if Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, was the ring on my right hand, even from there I would have you pulled off;
As I live, saith the Lord, though Conyahu the son of Jehoyakim the king of Judah were a signet upon my right hand, yet for a surety would I thence pluck thee;
25 And I will give you into the hands of those desiring your death, and into the hands of those whom you are fearing, even into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldaeans.
And I will give thee into the hand of those that seek thy life, and into the hand of those of whom thou art afraid, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 I will send you out, and your mother who gave you birth, into another country not the land of your birth; and there death will come to you.
And I will hurl thee out, and thy mother that hath born thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
27 But to the land on which their soul's desire is fixed, they will never come back.
But to the land whitherward they direct their soul to return, thither shall they not return.
28 Is this man Coniah a broken vessel of no value? is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure? why are they violently sent out, he and his seed, into a land which is strange to them?
Is this man Conyahu a despised broken image? or a vessel without value? wherefore are they hurled out, he and his seed, and are cast forth into a land which they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, give ear to the word of the Lord!
O land, land, land! hear the word of the Lord.
30 The Lord has said, Let this man be recorded as having no children, a man who will not do well in all his life: for no man of his seed will do well, seated on the seat of the kingdom of David and ruling again in Judah.
Thus hath said the Lord, Write ye down this man as childless, as a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no man of his seed shall succeed to sit upon the throne of David, and to rule any more in Judah.
