[1] Thus says the LORD: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and
speak there this word, [2] and say, `Hear the word of the LORD, O King of
Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your
people who enter these gates. [3] Thus says the LORD: Do justice and
righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been
robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless, and the
widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. [4] For if you will indeed
obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who
sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and
their servants, and their people. [5] But if you will not heed these words,
I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a
desolation. [6] For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of
Judah: "`You are as Gilead to me, as the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I
will make you a desert, an uninhabited city. [7] I will prepare destroyers
against you, each with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choicest
cedars, and cast them into the fire. [8] "`And many nations will pass by
this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, "Why has the LORD dealt
thus with this great city?" [9] And they will answer, "Because they forsook
the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other gods and served
them."'" [10] Weep not for him who is dead, nor bemoan him; but weep
bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his
native land. [11] For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of
Josi'ah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josi'ah his father, and who
went away from this place: "He shall return here no more, [12] but in the
place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall
never see this land again." [13] "Woe to him who builds his house by
unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbor
serve him for nothing, and does not give him his wages; [14] who says, `I
will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,' and cuts out
windows for it, paneling it with cedar, and painting it with vermilion.
[15] Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your
father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well
with him. [16] He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well.
Is not this to know me? says the LORD. [17] But you have eyes and heart
only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for
practicing oppression and violence." [18] Therefore thus says the LORD
concerning Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah, king of Judah: "They shall not
lament for him, saying, `Ah my brother!' or `Ah sister!' They shall not
lament for him, saying, `Ah lord!' or `Ah his majesty!' [19] With the
burial of an ass he shall be buried, dragged and cast forth beyond the
gates of Jerusalem." [20] "Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your
voice in Bashan; cry from Ab'arim, for all your lovers are destroyed. [21]
I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, `I will not listen.' This
has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice. [22]
The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into
captivity; then you will be ashamed and confounded because of all your
wickedness. [23] O inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you
will groan when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in travail!" [24]
"As I live, says the LORD, though Coni'ah the son of Jehoi'akim, king of
Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off [25]
and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of
those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrez'zar king of
Babylon and into the hand of the Chalde'ans. [26] I will hurl you and the
mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and
there you shall die. [27] But to the land to which they will long to
return, there they shall not return." [28] Is this man Coni'ah a despised,
broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled
and cast into a land which they do not know? [29] O land, land, land, hear
the word of the LORD! [30] Thus says the LORD: "Write this man down as
childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days; for none of his
offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David, and ruling again
in Judah."
