¹The LORD said , “Go down to the house of the king of Judah , and speak this word there :

²‘Hear the LORD ’s word , king of Judah , who sits on David ’s throne —you , your servants , and your people who enter in by these gates .

³The LORD 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 .

⁴For 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 .

⁵But if you will not hear these words , I swear by myself,” says the LORD , “that this house will become a desolation .”’”

⁶For the LORD 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 .

⁷I 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 neighbour , ‘Why has the LORD done this to this great city ?’

⁹Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God , worshipped other gods, and served them .’”

¹⁰Don’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.

¹¹For the LORD 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 .

¹²But 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 neighbour ’s service without wages ,

and doesn’t give him his hire;

¹⁴who 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 .

¹⁶He judged the cause of the poor and needy ;

so then it was well .

Wasn’t this to know me ?”

says the LORD .

¹⁷But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness ,

for shedding innocent blood ,

for oppression , and for doing violence .”

¹⁸Therefore the LORD 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 !’

¹⁹He 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 .

²¹I 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 .

²²The 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 .

²³Inhabitant 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 the LORD , “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand , I would still pluck you from there .

²⁵I 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 .

²⁶I will cast you out with your mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born ; and there you will die .

²⁷But to the land to which their soul longs to return , there they will not return .”

²⁸Is 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 ?

²⁹O earth, earth, earth,

hear the LORD ’s word !

³⁰The LORD 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 .”