Jeremiah 22

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

² Say: 'Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, you who sit on David's throne — you, your servants, and your people who enter through these gates.

³ This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do not mistreat or do violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴ For if you carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David's throne will enter through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their servants and their people.

⁵ But if you do not obey these commands, declares the LORD, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin."

⁶ For this is what the LORD says about the palace of the king of Judah:
"You are like Gilead to me,
like the summit of Lebanon,
yet I will surely make you like a wilderness,
like towns that are uninhabited.

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

⁸ "People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another: 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?'

⁹ And the answer will be: 'Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.'"

¹⁰ Do not weep for the dead or mourn for him;
weep bitterly for the one who goes away,
for he will never return
and see his native land again.

¹¹ For this is what the LORD says about Shallum son of Josiah, who succeeded his father Josiah as king of Judah but has gone from this place: "He will never return here.

¹² He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again."

¹³ "Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,
his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his own people work for nothing,
not paying them for their labor.

¹⁴ who says, 'I will build myself a great palace
with spacious upper rooms'
who cuts out windows for himself,
paneling it with cedar
and painting it red.

¹⁵ Does having more cedar
make you more of a king?
Your father ate and drank,
but he also did what was just and right,
and it went well with him.

¹⁶ He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
and so it went well with him.
Is that not what it means to know me?
declares the LORD.

¹⁷ But your eyes and your heart
are set only on dishonest gain,
on shedding innocent blood
and practicing oppression and extortion."

¹⁸ Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
"They will not lament for him,
'Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!'
They will not lament for him,
'Alas, his splendor! Alas, his majesty!'

¹⁹ He will have the burial of a donkey —
dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem."

²⁰ "Go up to Lebanon and cry out;
let your voice ring out in Bashan;
cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers are crushed.

²¹ I spoke to you in your prosperity,
but you said, 'I will not listen.'
This has been your way from your youth —
you have not obeyed my voice.

²² The wind will shepherd all your shepherds;
your lovers will go into captivity.
Then you will be ashamed and disgraced
because of all your wickedness.

²³ You who live in Lebanon,
nested in the cedar beams —
how you will groan when pangs come upon you,
like the pain of a woman in labor!"

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 still pull you off.

²⁵ I will hand you over to those who want to kill you, those you fear — to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Babylonians.

²⁶ I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you will die.

²⁷ You will never come back to the land to which you long to return."

²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered pot,
a vessel no one wants?
Why is he and his children hurled out and thrown
into a land they do not know?

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

³⁰ This is what the LORD says:
"Record this man as if childless,
a man who will not prosper in his lifetime,
for none of his offspring will prosper,
none will sit on the throne of David
or rule anymore in Judah."