Jeremiah 22

Living Bible

22 Then the Lord said to me: Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah and say, ² Listen to this message from God, O king of Judah, sitting on David’s throne; and let your servants and your people listen too.

³ The Lord says: Be fair-minded. Do what is right! Help those in need of justice! Quit your evil deeds! Protect the rights of aliens and immigrants, orphans and widows; stop murdering the innocent! ⁴ If you put an end to all these terrible deeds you are doing, then I will deliver this nation and once more give kings to sit on David’s throne, and there shall be prosperity for all. ⁵ But if you refuse to pay attention to this warning, I swear by my own name, says the Lord, that this palace shall become a shambles.

⁶ For this is the Lord’s message concerning the palace: You are as beloved to me as fruitful Gilead and the green forests of Lebanon; but I will destroy you and leave you deserted and uninhabited. ⁷ I will call for a wrecking crew to bring out its tools to dismantle you. They will tear out all of your fine cedar beams and throw them on the fire. ⁸ Men from many nations will pass by the ruins of this city and say to one another, “Why did the Lord do it? Why did he destroy such a great city?” ⁹ And the answer will be, “Because the people living here forgot the Lord their God and violated his agreement with them, for they worshiped idols.”

¹⁰ Don’t weep for the dead! Instead weep for the captives led away! For they will never return to see their native land again. ¹¹ For the Lord says this about Jehoahaz who succeeded his father^[a] King Josiah and was taken away as a captive: ¹² He shall die in a distant land^[b] and never again see his own country.

¹³ And woe to you, King Jehoiakim,^[c] for you are building your great palace with forced labor. By not paying wages you are building injustice into its walls and oppression into its doorframes and ceilings. ¹⁴ You say, “I will build a magnificent palace with huge rooms and many windows, paneled throughout with fragrant cedar and painted a lovely red.” ¹⁵ But a beautiful palace does not make a great king! Why did your father Josiah reign so long? Because he was just and fair in all his dealings. That is why God blessed him. ¹⁶ He saw to it that justice and help were given the poor and the needy and all went well for him. This is how a man lives close to God. ¹⁷ But you! You are full of selfish greed and all dishonesty! You murder the innocent, oppress the poor, and reign with ruthlessness.

¹⁸ Therefore this is God’s decree of punishment against King Jehoiakim, who succeeded his father Josiah on the throne: His family will not weep for him when he dies. His subjects will not even care that he is dead. ¹⁹ He shall be buried like a dead donkey—dragged out of Jerusalem and thrown on the garbage dump beyond the gate! ²⁰ Weep, for your allies are gone. Search for them in Lebanon; shout for them at Bashan; seek them at the fording points of Jordan. See, they are all destroyed. Not one is left to help you! ²¹ When you were prosperous, I warned you, but you replied, “Don’t bother me.” Since childhood you have been that way—you just won’t listen! ²² And now all your allies have disappeared with a puff of wind; all your friends are taken off as slaves. Surely at last you will see your wickedness and be ashamed. ²³ It’s very nice to live graciously in a beautiful palace among the cedars of Lebanon, but soon you will cry and groan in anguish—anguish as of a woman in labor.

^24-25 And as for you, Coniah,^[d] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah—even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off and give you to those who seek to kill you, of whom you are so desperately afraid—to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his mighty army. ²⁶ I will throw you and your mother out of this country, and you shall die in a foreign land. ²⁷ You will never again return to the land of your desire. ²⁸ This man Coniah is like a discarded, broken dish. He and his children will be exiled to distant lands.

²⁹ O earth, earth, earth! Hear the word of the Lord! ³⁰ The Lord says: Record this man Coniah as childless, for none of his children shall ever sit upon the throne of David or rule in Judah.^[e] His life will amount to nothing.