A Warning to Judah’s Kings

1Thus said Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2And say, Hear thou the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, sitting upon the throne of David, thou and thy servants, and thy people coming in to these gates: 3Thus said Jehovah, Do ye judgment and justice, and deliver him taken by force, from the hand of him oppressing: ye shall not be violent, ye shall not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, and ye shall not pour but innocent blood in this place. 4For if doing, ye shall do this word, and kings came into the gates of this house, sitting to David upon his throne, riding in chariots and upon horses, he send his servants and his people. 5And if ye will not bear these words, by myself I sware, says Jehovah, that this house shall be for a desolation.

A Warning about the Palace

6For thus said Jehovah, concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou Gilead to me, the head of Lebanon, if I shall not set thee a desert cities not inhabited.

7And I consecrated destroyers against thee, a man and his weapons: and they cut off from the chosen of thy cedars and cast upon the fire.

8And many nations passed through this city, and they said a man to his neighbor, For what did Jehovah thus to this great city? 9And they said, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God, and they will worship to other gods, and serve them.

A Warning about Shallum

10Ye shall not weep for the dead, and ye shall not bewail for him: weep ye, weep ye for him going away, for he shall no more turn back and see the land of his nativity.

11For thus said Jehovah to Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, reigning, instead of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place: He shall no more return there: 12For in the place where they carried him captive, there he shall die, and shall no more see this land.

A Warning about Jehoiakim

13Wo to him building his house not with justice, and his upper chambers not with judgment; by his neighbor he will work gratuitously, and he will give him not for his work;

14Saying, I will build to me a house of extension, and airy upper chambers, and he rent to himself windows; and covered with cedar, and painted with red.

15Shalt thou reign, for thou art kindled with cedar? did not thy father eat and drink and do judgment and justice, then it was well to him?

16He judged the judgment of the poor and the needy; then it was well: was this not knowing me? says Jehovah.

17For thine eyes and thy heart not but for thy plunder and for guiltless blood to pour out, and for oppression and for running, to do.

18For this, thus said Jehovah of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not lament for him: Alas, my brother! and, Alas, sister! they shall not lament for him, Alas, lord! and, Alas, the majesty!

19He shall be buried the burial of an ass, dragged and cast from beyond the gate of Jerusalem.

20Go up to Lebanon and cry, and in Basilan thou shalt give thy voice and cry from the passages, for all they loving thee were broken.

21I spake to thee in thy, securities, thou saidst, I will not hear. This thy way from thy youth, for thou heardest not to my voice.

22The wind shall feed all thy shepherds, and they loving thee shall go into captivity: for then shalt thou be ashamed and disgraced for all thine evil.

23Thou dwelling in Lebanon, building a nest in the cedars, how being compassionated in pangs coming to thee the pain as of her bringing forth.

A Warning to Coniah

24I live says Jehovah, for if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, shall be the seal upon my right hand, I will pluck thee off from thence. 25And I gave thee into the hand of those seeking thy soul, and into the hand of whom thou fearest their face, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26And I cast thee and thy mother who bare thee upon another land where ye were not born there, and there shall ye die. 27And upon the land where they lift up their soul to turn back there, there they shall not turn back.

28Is this man Coniah a despised broken earthen vessel? or a vessel no delight in it? wherefore they were cast out, he and his seed, and they were cast upon a land which they knew not.

29O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah.

30Thus said Jehovah, Write ye this man destitute, a man shall not prosper in his days: for not a man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling yet in Judah.