18-19 This is God’s epitaph on Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
    “Doom to this man!
Nobody will shed tears over him,
    ‘Poor, poor brother!’
Nobody will shed tears over him,
    ‘Poor, poor master!’
They’ll give him a donkey’s funeral,
    drag him out of the city and dump him.

You’ve Made a Total Mess of Your Life

20-23 “People of Jerusalem, climb a Lebanon peak and weep,
    climb a Bashan mountain and wail,
Climb the Abarim ridge and cry—
    you’ve made a total mess of your life.
I spoke to you when everything was going your way.
    You said, ‘I’m not interested.’
You’ve been that way as long as I’ve known you,
    never listened to a thing I said.
All your leaders will be blown away,
    all your friends end up in exile,
And you’ll find yourself in the gutter,
    disgraced by your evil life.
You big-city people thought you were so important,
    thought you were ‘king of the mountain’!
You’re soon going to be doubled up in pain,
    pain worse than the pangs of childbirth.

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19 He will have the burial(A) of a donkey—
    dragged away and thrown(B)
    outside the gates of Jerusalem.”

20 “Go up to Lebanon and cry out,(C)
    let your voice be heard in Bashan,(D)
cry out from Abarim,(E)
    for all your allies(F) are crushed.
21 I warned you when you felt secure,(G)
    but you said, ‘I will not listen!’
This has been your way from your youth;(H)
    you have not obeyed(I) me.

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