Jeremiah 22
1 Thus said YHWH: “Go down [to] the house of the king of Judah, and you have spoken this word there, and have said,
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 Hear a word of YHWH, O king of Judah, who are sitting on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people, who are coming in at 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 said YHWH: “Do judgment and righteousness, And deliver the plundered from the hand of the oppressor, And sojourner, orphan, and widow, you do not oppress nor wrong, And innocent blood you do not shed 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 you certainly do this thing, Then kings sitting for David on his throne Have come in by the gates of this house, Riding on chariot, and on horses, He, and his servants, 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 And if you do not hear these words, I have sworn by Myself,” A declaration of YHWH, “That this house is for a desolation.”
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 said YHWH concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You [are] Gilead to Me—head of Lebanon, If not—I make you a wilderness, Cities [that] are 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 have separated destroyers for you, Each with his weapons, And they have cut down the choice of your cedars, And have cast them on 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 have passed by this city, And they have each said to his neighbor, “Why has YHWH done thus to this great city?”
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 And they have said, “Because that they have forsaken The covenant of their God YHWH, And bow themselves to other gods, and serve 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 You do not weep for the dead, nor bemoan for him, Weep severely for the traveler, For he does not return again, Nor has he seen the land of his birth.
[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 said YHWH concerning Shallum son of Josiah king of Judah, who is reigning instead of his father Josiah, who has gone forth from this place: “He does not return here again;
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 For he dies in the place to where they have removed him, And he does not see this land again.
He will die in that far-away country and will never see his own country again.”
13 Woe to him who is building his house by unrighteousness, And his upper chambers by injustice, He lays service on his neighbor for nothing, And he does not give his wage to him.
[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 Who is saying, I build a large house for myself, And airy upper chambers, And he has cut out its windows for himself, Covered with cedar, and painted with vermillion.
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 Do you reign, because you are fretting yourself in cedar? Your father—did he not eat and drink? Indeed, he did judgment and righteousness, Then [it is] well with him.
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 He decided the cause of the poor and needy, Then [it is] well—is it not to know Me?” A declaration of YHWH.
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 your eyes and your heart are not, Except on your dishonest gain, And on shedding of innocent blood, And on oppression, and on doing of violence.”
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 said YHWH concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They do not lament for him, Oh, my brother! And, Oh, my sister! They do not lament for him, Oh, lord! And, Oh, his splendor!
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 is buried [with] the burial of a donkey, Dragged and cast out there to the gates of Jerusalem.
[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 Go up to Lebanon, and cry, And give forth your voice in Bashan, And cry from Abarim, For all loving you have been 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 have spoken to you in your ease, You have said, I do not listen, This [is] your way from your youth, For you have not listened to My voice.
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 Wind consumes all your friends, And your lovers go into captivity, Surely then you are ashamed, And have blushed for all your wickedness.
[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 O dweller in Lebanon, making a nest among cedars, How gracious have you been when pangs come to you, Pain—as of a travailing woman.”
[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 live,” A declaration of YHWH, “Though Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah was a seal on My right hand, surely there I draw you away,
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 have given you into the hand of those seeking your life, And into hands of which you are afraid, Into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, And into the hand of the Chaldeans.
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 have cast you, And your mother who bore you, to another country, Where you were not born, and you die there.
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 And to the land to where they are lifting up their soul to return, They do not return there.”
You will never return to this land that you will very much desire to return to.”
28 A grief—a despised broken thing—is this man Coniah? A vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why have they been cast up and down, He and his seed, Indeed, were they cast on to a land that they did not know?
[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 Earth, earth, earth, hear a word of YHWH!
[I want] the people in this land to listen carefully to this message from Yahweh.”
30 Thus said YHWH: “Write this man down [as] childless, A man—he does not prosper in his days, For none of his seed prospers, Sitting on the throne of David, And ruling in Judah again!”
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.”
