Jeremiah 22

1This is what Yahweh says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and speak this word there.

2Say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David—you, your officials, and your people who come in through these gates.

3This is what Yahweh says: Do justice and righteousness. Rescue the one who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor. Do not mistreat or do violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

4For if you truly carry out this word, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come in through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials and their people.

5But if you do not listen to these words, I swear by myself, declares Yahweh, that this palace will become a ruin.’”

6For this is what Yahweh says concerning the palace of the king of Judah: “You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon; yet I will surely make you a wilderness, cities without inhabitants.

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

8Many nations will pass by this city, and they will say to one another, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this great city?’

9And they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.’”

10Do not weep for the dead or mourn for him; weep bitterly instead for the one who is going away, for he will never return to see the land of his birth.

11For this is what Yahweh says concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah as king and who has gone away from this place: “He will never return here.

12He will die in the place where they have taken him into exile, and he will never see this land again.”

13Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness and its upper rooms without justice, who makes his neighbor work for nothing and does not pay him his wages,

14who says, “I will build myself a spacious house with roomy upper rooms,” and cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it bright red.

15Does it make you a king to compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it went well with him.

16He defended the cause of the poor and needy; then it went well. Is this not what it means to know me? declares Yahweh.

17But your eyes and your heart are set on nothing except your dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, and on practicing oppression and extortion.

18Therefore this is what Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him, crying, ‘Alas, my brother!’ or ‘Alas, sister!’ They will not mourn for him, crying, ‘Alas, master!’ or ‘Alas, his majesty!’

19He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”

20Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers have been crushed.

21I spoke to you when you felt secure, but you said, “I will not listen.” This has been your way from your youth: you have not obeyed my voice.

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

23You who live in Lebanon, nestled among the cedars, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in labor!

24As I live, declares Yahweh, even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off from there.

25I will hand you over to those who seek your life, to those you dread, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and to the Chaldeans.

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

27They will never return to the land they long to return to.

28Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a jar that no one wants? Why have he and his children been hurled out and thrown into a land they do not know?

29O land, land, land, hear the word of Yahweh!

30This is what Yahweh says: “Record this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his descendants will prosper by sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.”