Jeremiah 22

VIN^{(i) 1} This is what the LORD says: "Go to the palace of the king of Judah, and speak this message there: ² 'Listen to the word of the LORD, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David you, your officials, and your people who enter these gates. ³ This is what the LORD says: "Uphold justice and righteousness. Deliver from their oppressor those who have been robbed. Don't mistreat or do violence to the alien, the orphan, or the widow, or shed the blood of innocent people in this place. ⁴ "'If you do what I say, then the kings who sit on David's throne will ride through the gates of this palace in chariots and on horses along with their officials and their people."' ⁵ But if you don't listen to these words, I swear," declares the LORD, "that this house will become a ruin."'" ⁶ For this is what the LORD says about the house of the king of Judah, "You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon. Yet I'll surely make you a desert, towns where no one lives. ⁷ And I will prepare destroyers against you, each one with his weapons. And they shall cut down your choice cedars, and throw them into the fire. ⁸ »Many nations will pass by this city. They will say to one another: Why has the LORD done thus to this great city? ⁹ Then shall it be answered: Because they have broken the covenant of the LORD their God, and have worshipped and served strange gods.'" ¹⁰ "Do not weep for the dead or mourn for him. Weep continually for the one who goes away. For he will never return or see his native land. ¹¹ "'This is what the LORD says about King Josiah's son Shallum, who succeeded his father as king of Judah and left this place: 'He will never come back here again. ¹² "'He will die in the place where they led him captive. He will not see this land again.' ¹³ Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his upper rooms without justice; his neighbor serves without pay, and he does not give him for his work; ¹⁴ who says, I will build myself a wide house and large upper rooms. And he cuts out windows for it and covers with cedar, and paints with vermilion. ¹⁵ Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. ¹⁶ He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy. Then it was well. "Is that not what it means to know me?" Says the LORD. 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." ¹⁸ Therefore the LORD tells us about Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "They will not cry for him: 'Alas, my brother!' And, 'Alas, sister!' They will not mourn him: 'Alas for the master!' And, "Alas for his splendor!" ¹⁹ He will be buried with the burial of a donkey. He will be dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem. ²⁰ Go up to Lebanon and cry. And lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry out from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed. ²¹ I spoke to you when you were secure, but you said, "I won't listen!" This has been your way since your youth, for you haven't obeyed me. ²² The wind will shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into exile. Indeed, you will then be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness. ²³ You who live in Lebanon, who build your nest in the cedars, how you will groan when pains come upon you, pain like that of a woman giving birth. ²⁴ "As surely as I live," declares the LORD, "even if Jehoiakim's son King Jehoiachin of Judah were a signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off ²⁵ "As I live," says the LORD, "I will hand you over to those who want to kill you, those you fear, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Babylonians. ²⁶ I'll hurl you and the mother who gave birth to you into another land where you were not born, and there you will die. ²⁷ As for the land to which you want to return, you won't return there! ²⁸ "Is this man Jehoiachin a despised and shattered jar, a vessel no one wants? Why were he and his descendants hurled away, thrown into a land that they didn't know? ²⁹ O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD. ³⁰ Thus says the LORD: "Record this man as childless, a man who will not succeed in his days, for no man from his offspring will succeed him, sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah."