Oracles against the kings

¹The LORD proclaims: Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and declare this message:

²Listen to the LORD ’s word, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you and your attendants, and all those who go through these gates.

³The LORD proclaims: Do what is just and right; rescue the oppressed from the power of the oppressor. Don’t exploit or mistreat the refugee, the orphan, and the widow. Don’t spill the blood of the innocent in this place.

⁴If you obey this command, then through the gates of this palace will come kings who occupy the throne of David, riding on chariots and horses along with their entourage and subjects.

⁵But if you ignore these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD , that this palace will become a ruin.

⁶The LORD proclaims concerning the palace of the king of Judah:

Though you are like Gilead to me,

like the summit of Lebanon,

I will turn you into a desert—uninhabited cities.

⁷I will summon destroyers against you,

who will use their weapons

⁸People from many nations will pass by this city and ask each other: “Why has the LORD treated that great city like this?”

⁹And the answer will be, “Because they abandoned the covenant with the LORD their God and worshipped and served other gods.”

¹⁰Don’t weep or lament for the dead king.[#22.10 Heb lacks]

Weep instead for the one who has gone away,

¹¹This is what the LORD says about Shallum son of Judah’s King Josiah, who succeeded his father Josiah as king but who is now gone from this place: He will never return!

¹²He will die where he’s been exiled and never see this land again.

¹³How terrible for Jehoiakim, who builds his house with corruption

and his upper chambers with injustice,

¹⁴He says, “I’ll build myself a grand palace,

with huge upper chambers,

¹⁵Is this what makes you a king,

having more cedar than anyone else?

Didn’t your father eat and drink

and still do what was just and right?

Then it went well for him!

¹⁶He defended the rights of the poor and needy;

Isn’t that what it means to know me?

declares the LORD .

¹⁷But you set your eyes and heart

on nothing but unjust gain;

you spill the blood of the innocent;

¹⁸Therefore, this is what the LORD says to Jehoiakim son of Judah’s King Josiah:

They won’t grieve for him, saying, “My brother, my sister!”

They won’t grieve for him, saying, “My master, my majesty!”

¹⁹They will give him a donkey’s burial,

dragging him outside the gates of Jerusalem

²⁰Go up to Lebanon and cry out,

lift up your voice in Bashan,

cry out from Abarim,

²¹I spoke to you when you felt safe and secure,

but you said, “I won’t listen.”

You have been that way since your youth:

not listening to a word I say.

²²Your shepherds will be tossed to the wind,

your lovers taken off to exile.

Then you will be embarrassed and humiliated

by all your wickedness.

²³You who live in Lebanon,

who will pity you

²⁴As surely as I live, declares the LORD , even if Coniah, King Jehoiakim’s son from Judah were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still remove you from there.[#22.24 Cf Jeconiah in Jer 24:1]

²⁵I would hand you over to those who seek to kill you, those you dread, even Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar and his army.[#22.25 Or the Babylonians]

²⁶I will banish you and your mother who bore you to a land far from your native soil, and there the two of you will die.

²⁷You will never return to the land you long to go back to.[#22.27 Or They; #22.27 Or they]

²⁸Is this man Coniah

merely a defiled and broken pottery jar

Why then have he and his children been hurled out

and cast into an unfamiliar land?

²⁹Land, land, land,

hear the LORD ’s word:

³⁰The LORD proclaims:

Mark this man as childless;

he will not prosper during his lifetime.