Jeremiah 22
1 Thus said the Lord, Goe downe to the house of the King of Iudah, and speake there this thing,
This is another message that Yahweh gave [to me]: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and say this to him:
2 And say, Heare the worde of the Lord, O King of Iudah, that sittest vpon the throne of Dauid, thou and thy seruants, and thy people that enter in by these gates.
‘You are the king of Judah. You are the ruler [MTY], like King David was. You and your officials and your people must listen
3 Thus saith the Lord, Execute ye iudgement and righteousnes, and deliuer the oppressed from the hande of the oppressor, and vexe not the stranger, the fatherlesse, nor the widowe: doe no violence, nor sheade innocent blood in this place.
to what Yahweh says: “Act fairly and justly. Do what is right. Help those who have been robbed. Rescue people from those who oppress them. Stop doing evil things. Do not mistreat those who have come here from other countries, and do not mistreat orphans and widows. Stop murdering here [in Jerusalem] [MTY] those who (are innocent/have not done things that are wrong).
4 For if ye do this thing, then shall the kings sitting vpon the throne of Dauid enter in by the gates of this House, and ride vpon charets, and vpon horses, both he and his seruants and his people.
If you obey those commands carefully, there will [always] be some descendant of King David who will be ruling here [MTY] [in Jerusalem]. The king and his officials and other people will ride through the gates of the city in chariots and on horses.
5 But if ye will not heare these wordes, I sweare by my selfe, saith the Lord, that this House shalbe waste.
But if you refuse to pay attention to those commands, I, Yahweh, solemnly declare, with myself [MTY] as a witness, that this palace will become a pile of rubble.”’”
6 For thus hath the Lord spoken vpon the Kings house of Iudah, Thou art Gilead vnto me, and the head of Lebanon, yet surely I wil make thee a wildernes and as cities not inhabited,
And this is what Yahweh says about the king’s palace: “[I like] this palace, like I like the forests in the Gilead [region] and the mountains in Lebanon. But I will cause this palace to become a desert, a place that no one lives in.
7 And I will prepare destroyers against thee, euery one with his weapons, and they shall cut downe thy chiefe cedar trees, and cast them in the fire.
I will summon enemy troops who will destroy this palace; each of their soldiers will use his own tools [to wreck the building]. They will cut into pieces the beautiful big cedar [beams] and throw them into a fire.”
8 And many nations shall passe by this citie, and they shall say euery man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus vnto this great citie?
People from many nations will walk past [the ruins of] this city and say to each other, “Why did Yahweh destroy this city that was [very] great?”
9 Then shall they answere, Because they haue forsaken the couenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and serued them.
And [other] people will reply, “[He did it] because his people stopped obeying the agreement that they had made with Yahweh their God. Instead, they worshiped [DOU] other gods.”
10 Weepe not for the dead, and be not moued for them, but weepe for him that goeth out: for he shall returne no more, nor see his natiue countrey.
[Yahweh also says, ] “Do not mourn for King [Josiah]; do not cry because he has died. Instead, mourn for [King Jehoahaz, his son], [because] he will be captured and taken to another country, and he will never return to see his own country, [Judah], again.”
11 For thus saith ye Lord, As touching Shallum the sonne of Iosiah King of Iudah, which reigned for Iosiah his father, which went out of this place, he shall not returne thither,
Jehoahaz became king after his father, King Josiah, [died], but Jehoahaz indeed was captured and taken [to Babylonia]. And this is what Yahweh says about him: “He also will never return [to Judah].
12 But he shall die in the place, whither they haue ledde him captiue, and shall see this lande no more.
He will die in that far-away country and will never see his own country again.”
13 Wo vnto him that buildeth his house by vnrighteousnesse, and his chambers without equitie: he vseth his neighbour without wages, and giueth him not for his worke.
[And Yahweh said to me], “Terrible things will happen to [King Jehoahaz’s brother, King Jehoiakim]. He unjustly [forced men to] build his palace. The rooms on the upper level were built [by men who were forced] unjustly [to do that work]; he forced his neighbors to work for nothing; he did not pay them anything.
14 He saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers: so he will make him selfe large windowes, and feeling with cedar, and paint them with vermilion.
He said, ‘I will [force my workers to] build a huge beautiful palace with very large rooms and [many] windows. They will cover the walls with [fragrant] cedar panels/timber and paint them bright red.’”
15 Shalt thou reigne, because thou closest thy selfe in cedar? did not thy father eate and drinke and prosper, when he executed iudgement and iustice?
But it is certainly not [RHQ] having a beautiful cedar palace that causes a king to be great! Jehoiakim’s father, Josiah, also had [RHQ] plenty of things to eat and drink. But Josiah always did things that are right and just, and that is why God blessed him.
16 When he iudged the cause of the afflicted and the poore, he prospered: was not this because he knewe me, saith the Lord?
Josiah acted justly/fairly and helped poor and needy people, so things went well for him. Yahweh says, “That is [RHQ] the way a person should behave who knows me.
17 But thine eyes and thine heart are but only for thy couetousnesse, and for to sheade innocent blood, and for oppression, and for destruction, euen to doe this.
But [Jehoiakim], you [MTY] are greedy and desire only to obtain things by acting dishonestly. You murder [MTY] innocent people, you oppress poor people, and you treat people cruelly and violently.”
18 Therefore thus saith the Lord against Iehoiakim, the sonne of Iosiah king of Iudah, They shall not lament him, saying, Ah, my brother, or ah, sister: neither shall they mourne for him, saying, Ah, lord, or ah, his glorie.
Therefore, this is what Yahweh says about Jehoiakim, the son of King Josiah: “[When he dies], people will not mourn for him. They will not say to each other, ‘It is very sad; we are so sorry!’ The people whom he ruled will not mourn for him, saying, ‘We are sad that our king is dead; we are so sorry that the wonderful things [that happened while he was king are ended].’
19 He shalbe buryed, as an asse is buryed, euen drawen and cast foorth without the gates of Ierusalem.
[When he dies, people will do to] his corpse what they do to a dead donkey; his [corpse] will be dragged out of Jerusalem and dumped outside the gates!
20 Goe vp to Lebanon, and cry: showte in Bashan and crye by the passages: for all thy louers are destroyed.
[You people of Judah], go to [the mountains in] Lebanon and weep, shout in the [mountains of the] Bashan [region], cry out in [the mountains of] Moab, because all your friends [in those areas] have been destroyed.
21 I spake vnto thee when thou wast in prosperitie: but thou saidest, I will not heare: this hath bene thy maner from thy youth, that thou wouldest not obey my voyce.
When you were prosperous, I warned you, but you replied, ‘We will not pay attention [to what you say].’ You have been acting like that since you were young; you have never obeyed me.
22 The wind shall feede all thy pastors, and thy louers shall goe into captiuitie: and then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded of al thy wickednesse.
[So, now I will punish] all your leaders; [it will be as though] they have been blown away by the wind. They will be captured [by your enemies] and taken to another country. When that happens, you will [truly] be ashamed and disgraced because of all the wicked things [that you have done].
23 Thou that dwellest in Lebanon, and makest thy nest in the cedars, howe beautiful shalt thou be when sorowes come vpon thee, as the sorowe of a woman in trauaile?
[Now, your king] enjoys living in the cedar rooms in his palace, but [soon] he will be punished, and then he will groan like [SIM] a woman who is giving birth to a baby.”
24 As I liue, saith the Lord, though Coniah the sonne of Iehoiakim King of Iudah, were the signet of my right hand, yet would I plucke thee thence.
Yahweh says this: “Jehoiachin, son of King Jehoiakim of Judah, as surely as I am alive, [I will punish you]. Even if you were the ring on my finger that shows that I am the king, I would pull you off.
25 And I will giue thee into the hande of them that seeke thy life, and into the hande of them, whose face thou fearest, euen into the hand of Nebuchad-nezzar king of Babel, and into the hande of the Caldeans.
You are afraid of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his huge army, [because] they are wanting to kill you. I will enable them to capture you.
26 And I will cause them to cary thee away, and thy mother that bare thee, into another countrey, where ye were not borne, and there shall ye die.
I will expel you and your mother [from this land], and you will be taken to another country. Neither of you was born there, but you will both die there.
27 But to the lande, whereunto they desire to returne, they shall not returne thither.
You will never return to this land that you will very much desire to return to.”
28 Is not this man Coniah as a despised and broken idole? or as a vessell, wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they caryed away, hee and his seede, and cast out into a lande that they knowe not?
[Someone said, ] “Jehoiachin will be [RHQ] like a broken pot that is despised and which no one wants. He and his children will be (exiled/forced to go) to a foreign land.
29 O earth, earth, earth, heare the worde of the Lord.
[I want] the people in this land to listen carefully to this message from Yahweh.”
30 Thus saith the Lord, Write this man destitute of children, a man that shall not prosper in his dayes: for there shall be no man of his seede that shall prosper and sit vpon the throne of Dauid, or beare rule any more in Iudah.
This is what Yahweh says: “[In the record about the kings of Judah, ] write down that [it will be as though] this man [Jehoiachin] had no children, and that he has not been successful during his life, because none of his children/descendants will [ever] become king to rule over [the people of] Judah.”
