Jeremiah 22

1. Thus says the LORD, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there.

2. And say, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.

3. Thus says the LORD, “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the oppressor’s hand. And do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

4. For if you do this thing indeed, then there shall enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

5. But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.” ’ ”

6. For thus says the LORD to the king of Judah’s house, “You are Gilead to Me, and the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.

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. And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say each one to his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this great city?’

9. Then they shall answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.’ ”

10. Weep not for the dead, nor moan for him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away,goes into exilefor he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

11. For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned in the place of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place, “He shall not return here any more.

12. But he shall die in the place where they have exiled him and shall see this land no more.”

13. “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his upper rooms without justice; who uses his neighbor’s service without pay, and he gives him naught for his work;

14.Who says,’I will build myself a great house and spacious rooms’—and cuts out windows for himself, and puts in a cedar ceiling, and paints it with vermilion.

15. Shall you reign because you surround yourself with cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and righteousness? Then it was well with him.

16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him. Was this not the way to know Me?” says the LORD.

17. “But your eyes and your heart are for nothing but for your own covetousness, and to shed innocent blood, and for cruelty, and to do violence.”

18. Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, “They shall not mourn for him, saying, ‘Ah, my brother!’ or, ‘Ah, my sister!’ They shall not mourn for him, saying, ‘Ah, lord!’ or, ‘Ah, his splendor!’

19. He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”

20. “Go up to Lebanon, and cry. And lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim, for all your lovers are destroyed.

21. I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, ‘I will not hear.’ This has been your way from your youth, for you have not obeyed My voice.

22. The wind shall eat up all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated for all your wickedness.

23. O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs come to you, the pain as of a woman giving birth!

24. As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pull you out of there!

25. And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

26. And I will cast you and your 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 desire to return, there they shall not return.”

28. Is this man Coniah a despised broken jar? Is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they do not know?

29. O earth, earth, earth! Hear the Word of the LORD!

30. Thus says the LORD, “Write this man down as childless, a man who will not be blessed in his days. For no man of his seed shall be blessed, sitting on the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.”