Shared Word Translation
Jeremiah 22
A Word to the House of David
Thus said the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak this word there, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, king of Judah who sits on the throne of David—you, your servants, and your people who enter through these gates. Thus says the LORD: Practice justice and righteousness. Rescue the one who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor. Do not wrong or do violence to the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. For if you truly do this thing, then kings who sit for David on his throne will enter through the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you do not listen to these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.’”
A Lament over the Royal House
For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah:
“You are like Gilead to me,
like the summit of Lebanon,
yet surely I will make you a wilderness,
cities without inhabitants.
I will consecrate destroyers against you,
each with his weapons.
They will cut down your choice cedars
and throw them into the fire.
Many nations will pass by this city, and each will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this great city?’
And they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.’”
Do Not Weep for the Dead King
Do not weep for the dead,
and do not mourn for him.
Weep bitterly for the one who goes away,
for he will return no more
or see the land of his birth.
For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in place of Josiah his father and who went out from this place: “He will not return here again.
But in the place where they carried him into exile, there he will die, and he will see this land no more.”
Woe to the One Who Builds by Unrighteousness
Woe to the one who builds his house
by unrighteousness
and his upper rooms
by injustice,
who makes his neighbor serve for nothing
and does not give him his wages,
who says,
“I will build myself a large house
with spacious upper rooms,”
and cuts out windows for it,
panels it with cedar,
and paints it with red.
Do you reign
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and practice justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is this not to know me?
says the LORD.
But your eyes and your heart
are only for your unjust gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
and for oppression and violence.
Judgment on Jehoiakim
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:
“They will not lament for him,
‘Alas, my brother!’
or ‘Alas, sister!’
They will not lament for him,
‘Alas, lord!’
or ‘Alas, his majesty!’
He will be buried with the burial of a donkey,
dragged away and thrown out
beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem’s Lovers Will Be Broken
Go up to Lebanon and cry out;
raise your voice in Bashan.
Cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers are broken.
I spoke to you in your prosperity,
but you said, “I will not listen.”
This has been your way from your youth:
you have not listened to my voice.
The wind will shepherd all your shepherds,
and your lovers will go into captivity.
Then surely you will be ashamed and humiliated
because of all your evil.
You who dwell in Lebanon,
nested among the cedars,
how you will groan
when pains come upon you,
anguish like one giving birth!
Judgment on Coniah
“As I live,” says the LORD, “even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, even from there I would tear you off. I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those whom you fear, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another land where you were not born, and there you will die. But to the land to which they lift up their life to return, there they will not return.”
Is This Man Coniah a Despised Vessel?
Is this man Coniah
a despised, shattered vessel,
a vessel no one desires?
Why are he and his offspring hurled out
and cast into a land
they do not know?
Land, land, land,
hear the word of the LORD!
Thus says the LORD:
“Write this man down as childless,
a man who will not prosper in his days,
for none of his offspring will prosper
sitting on the throne of David
and ruling again in Judah.”