Chapter 22
1 Yahweh said , " Go down to the house of the king of Judah , and speak this word there :
2 ‘ Hear Yahweh ’s word , king of Judah , who sits on David ’s throne — you , your servants , and your people who enter in by these gates .
3 Yahweh says : " Execute justice and righteousness , and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor . Do no wrong . Do no violence to the foreigner , the fatherless , or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place .
4 For if you do this thing indeed , then kings sitting on David ’s throne will enter in by the gates of this house , riding in chariots and on horses — they , their servants , and their people .
5 But if you will not hear these words , I swear by myself," says Yahweh , " that this house will become a desolation ."’"
6 For Yahweh says concerning the house of the king of Judah : " You are Gilead to me , the head of Lebanon . Yet surely I will make you a wilderness , cities which are not inhabited .
7 I will prepare destroyers against you , everyone with his weapons , and they will cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8 " Many nations will pass by this city , and they will each ask his neighbor , ‘ Why has Yahweh done this to this great city ?’
9 Then they will answer, ‘ Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God , worshiped other gods, and served them .’"
10 Don’t weep for the dead . Don’t bemoan him ; but weep bitterly for him who goes away , for he will return no more , and not see his native country.
11 For Yahweh says touching Shallum the son of Josiah , king of Judah , who reigned instead of Josiah his father , and who went out of this place : " He won’t return there any more .
12 But he will die in the place where they have led him captive . He will see this land no more ."
13 " Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness , and his rooms by injustice ; who uses his neighbor ’s service without wages , and doesn’t give him his hire;
14 who says, ‘ I will build myself a wide house and spacious rooms ,’ and cuts out windows for himself, with a cedar ceiling, and painted with red .
15 " Should you reign because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn’t your father eat and drink , and do justice and righteousness ? Then it was well with him .
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy ; so then it was well . Wasn’t this to know me ?" says Yahweh .
17 But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness , for shedding innocent blood , for oppression , and for doing violence ."
18 Therefore Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah , king of Judah : " They won’t lament for him , saying, ‘ Ah my brother!’ or , ‘ Ah sister!’ They won’t lament for him , saying ‘ Ah lord !’ or , ‘ Ah his glory !’
19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey , drawn and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem ."
20 " Go up to Lebanon , and cry out . Lift up your voice in Bashan , and cry from Abarim ; for all your lovers have been destroyed .
21 I spoke to you in your prosperity , but you said , ‘ I will not listen .’ This has been your way from your youth , that you didn’t obey my voice .
22 The wind will feed all your shepherds , and your lovers will go into captivity . Surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness .
23 Inhabitant of Lebanon , who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you , the pain as of a woman in travail !
24 " As I live ," says Yahweh , " though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand , I would still pluck you from there .
25 I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life , and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid , even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans .
26 I will cast you out with your mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born ; and there you will die .
27 But to the land to which their soul longs to return , there they will not return ."
28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel ? Is he a vessel in which no one delights ? Why are they cast out , he and his offspring , and cast into a land which they don’t know ?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear Yahweh ’s word !
30 Yahweh says , " Record this man as childless , a man who will not prosper in his days ; for no more will a man of his offspring prosper , sitting on David ’s throne and ruling in Judah ."