Jeremiah 22

¹ Yahweh said this, ‘Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there deliver this message,

² “Listen to the word of Yahweh, king of Judah sitting on the throne of David, you, your servants too, and your people who go through these gates.

³ Yahweh says this: Practise honesty and integrity; rescue the man who has been wronged from the hands of his oppressor; do not exploit the stranger, the orphan, the widow; do no violence; shed no innocent blood in this place.

⁴ For if you are scrupulous in obeying this command, then kings occupying the throne of David will continue to make their entry through the gates of this palace mounted on chariots and horses, they, their servants and their people.

⁵ But if you do not listen to these words, then I swear by myself – it is Yahweh who speaks – this palace shall become a ruin!

⁶ Yes, this is what Yahweh says about the royal palace of Judah: You were like a Gilead to me, like a peak of Lebanon. All the same, I will reduce you to a desert, to an uninhabited town.

⁷ I have dedicated men to destroy you, each man with his axe; they will cut down your finest cedars and throw them on the fire.

⁸ When the hordes of the nations pass this city, they will say to each other: Why has Yahweh treated such a great city like this?

⁹ And the answer will be: Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God to worship alien gods and serve them.”‘

¹⁰ Do not weep for the man who is dead,[*a] do not raise the dirge for him. Weep bitterly for the man who has gone away, since he will never come back, never see his native land again.

¹¹ For this is what Yahweh has said about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded Josiah his father and was forced to leave this place, ‘He will never come back to it

¹² but will die in the place to which he has been taken captive; and he will never see this country again.

¹³ ‘Doom for the man who founds his palace on anything but integrity, his upstairs rooms on anything but honesty, who makes his fellow man work for nothing, without paying him his wages,

¹⁴ who says, “I will build myself an imposing palace with spacious rooms upstairs”, who pierces lights in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it vermilion.

¹⁵ Are you more of a king for outrivalling others with cedar? Your father ate and drank, like you, but he practised honesty and integrity, so all went well for him.

¹⁶ He used to examine the cases of poor and needy, then all went well. Is not that what it means to know me? – it is Yahweh who speaks.

¹⁷ You on the other hand have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.’

¹⁸ So Yahweh has said this about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: ‘Doom for that man! Raise no dirge for him, “Mourn for my brother! Mourn for my sister!” Raise no dirge for him, “Mourn for his highness. Mourn for his majesty”

¹⁹ He will receive the funeral honours of a donkey, – dragged away and thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰ ‘Go up to Lebanon and shriek, let your voice be heard on Bashan, shriek from Abarim,[*b] for all your lovers[*c] have been ruined!

²¹ I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, “I will not listen!” from your youth this has been how you behaved, refusing to listen to my voice.

²² The wind will blow all your shepherds away to other pastures, your lovers will go into captivity. Yes, now you may well be ashamed and confounded at the thought of all your wickedness.

²³ You who made Lebanon your home, who made your nest among the cedars, how you will groan when anguish overtakes you, and pain like that of a woman in labour!

²⁴ ‘As I live – it is Yahweh who speaks – even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I would still wrench him off.

²⁵ I will deliver you into the hands of those determined to kill you, into the hands of those you dread, the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the hands of the Chaldaeans.

²⁶ You and the mother who bore you, I will thrust you both out into another country; you were not born there but you will both die there.

²⁷ They will not return to the country to which they so long to return.’

²⁸ Is he a shoddy broken pot, this man Coniah, a crock that no one wants? Why are they ejected, he and his descendants, thrown into a country they know nothing of?

²⁹ O land, land, land, listen to the word of Yahweh!

³⁰ Yahweh says this, ‘List this man as: Childless; a man who made a failure of his life, since none of his descendants will have the fortune to sit on the throne of David, or to rule in Judah again.