Jeremiah 22

Justice at the palace

1The LORD said, “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and speak this word there: 2‘Hear the word of the LORD, king of Judah, you who sit on David's throne—you, your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3The LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue the one who has been robbed from the oppressor's hand. Do not wrong or mistreat the resident foreigner, the orphan, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4If you truly carry out this word, kings who sit on David's throne will enter the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, each with his servants and his people. 5But if you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, this palace will become a ruin.’

6“For this is what the LORD says about the palace of the king of Judah:
Though you are Gilead to me,
the summit of Lebanon,
I will make you a wilderness,
a place of uninhabited towns. 7I will set apart destroyers against you,
each with his weapons.
They will cut down your finest cedars
and throw them into the fire. 8“Many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why did the LORD do this to this great city?’ 9They will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God, bowed down to other gods, and served them.’

The king who will not return

10Do not weep for the dead king
or mourn for him.
Weep bitterly for the one who is leaving,
for he will never return
or see the land of his birth again. 11For the LORD says this about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of his father Josiah and left this place: “He will never return here. 12He will die in the place where they have exiled him. He will never see this land again.”

Cedar without justice

13Woe to the man who builds his house through injustice
and his upper rooms through wrongdoing,
who makes his neighbor work for nothing
and never pays him his wages! 14He says, “I will build myself a spacious house
with airy upper rooms.”
He cuts windows for it,
panels it with cedar,
and paints it vermilion. 15Does competing in cedar make you a king?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do what was just and right?
Then things went well for him. 16He defended the cause of the poor and needy;
then things went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?
declares the LORD. 17But your eyes and your heart
are set only on your dishonest gain,
on shedding innocent blood,
and on practicing oppression and violence.

18So this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:
They will not mourn for him,
“Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!”
They will not mourn for him,
“Alas, my lord! Alas, his splendor!” 19He will have a donkey's burial—
dragged away and thrown
beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

A dynasty brought down

20Climb Lebanon and cry out!
Raise your voice in Bashan!
Cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers have been crushed. 21I spoke to you when you were secure,
but you said, “I will not listen.”
This has been your way from your youth:
you have never listened to my voice. 22The wind will shepherd all your shepherds away,
and your lovers will go into captivity.
Then you will be ashamed and humiliated
because of all your evil. 23You who live in Lebanon,
who nest among the cedars,
how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,
pain like that of a woman giving birth!

24“As I live, declares the LORD, even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off. 25I will hand you over to those seeking your life, to those you fear—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Chaldeans. 26I will hurl you and the mother who gave birth to you into another country, where neither of you was born. There you will die. 27They will never return to the land they long to return to.”

28Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot,
a vessel no one wants?
Why have he and his offspring been hurled away,
thrown into a land they do not know? 29Land, land, land!
Hear the word of the LORD! 30The LORD says:
“Record this man as childless,
a man who will not prosper in his lifetime.
For none of his offspring will prosper
by sitting on David's throne
and ruling again in Judah.”