Jeremiah, Chapter 22

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 upon the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates:    3. Thus says the LORD; Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is plundered out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.    4. For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their servants, and their 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's house of Judah; You are Gilead to me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.    7. And I will prepare destroyers against you, every 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 every man to his neighbor, Why has the LORD done thus unto 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. Do not weep for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep bitterly for him who goes away: for 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 instead of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place; He shall not return there any more:    12. But he shall die in the place to which they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.    13. Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; who makes use of his neighbor's service without wages, and does not give him anything for his work;    14. Who says, I will build for myself a wide house and large chambers, and cuts him out windows; and it is covered with cedar, and painted with vermilion.    15. Shall you reign, because you enclose yourself in cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness, and then it was well with him?    16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? says the LORD.    17. But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, and to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.    18. Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah 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 glory!    19. He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.    20. Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from the passes: 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 manner from your youth, that you did not obey my voice.    22. The wind shall eat up all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shall you be ashamed and astonished for all your wickedness.    23. O inhabitant of Lebanon, who make your nest in the cedars, how gracious shall you be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in birth labor!    24. As I live, says the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck you from 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 out, and your mother that bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there shall you die.    27. But to the land to which they desire to return, there shall they not return.    28. Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his children, 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 as childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his descendents shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.