1Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word,2and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. (Jer 21:12)3Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. (Le 19:33; Ps 82:3; Isa 1:17; Jer 7:5; Jer 21:12; Jer 22:17; Jer 26:15)4For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. (Jer 17:25)5But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. (Ge 22:16; Isa 64:10; Jer 7:34; Jer 25:11; Jer 25:18; Jer 44:6; Jer 44:22; Jer 49:13; Jer 51:14; Eze 5:14; Am 6:8; Heb 6:13)6For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city.[1] (Jer 6:8; Jer 22:20; Jer 22:23)7I will prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons, and they shall cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire. (2Ki 19:23; Isa 37:24; Jer 6:4)8“And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?” (Jer 5:19)9And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”’” (De 29:25)10Weep not for him who is dead, nor grieve for him, but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land. (2Ch 35:24; Jer 22:11)
Message to the Sons of Josiah
11For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, (2Ki 23:34; 2Ch 36:4; Eze 19:4)12but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.” (Jer 22:11)13“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages, (Le 19:13; Le 25:39; De 24:14; Isa 5:18; Mic 3:10; Hab 2:12; Jas 5:4)14who says, ‘I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,’ who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion. (Eze 23:14)15Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. (2Ki 23:25; Ps 128:2; Ec 8:12; Isa 3:10)16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord. (Jud 2:10; Pr 31:9; Isa 1:17; Jer 22:15)17But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence.” (Jer 22:3; Jer 26:15)18Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’ They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah, lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’ (1Ki 13:30; Ps 78:64; Jer 16:4; Jer 34:5)19With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” (Isa 14:19; Jer 8:2; Jer 36:30)20“Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are destroyed. (Nu 27:12; De 32:49; Jer 3:1)21I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice. (Ps 129:1; Jer 3:25)22The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; then you will be ashamed and confounded because of all your evil. (Jer 3:25; Jer 22:20; Jer 23:1; Eze 34:10)23O inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in labor!” (Isa 13:8; Jer 6:24; Jer 22:6)24“As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off (1Ki 21:8; So 8:6; Isa 49:18; Eze 5:11; Hag 2:23)25and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. (De 1:17; Jer 34:20; Jer 39:17)26I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. (2Ki 24:8; 2Ki 24:15; 2Ch 36:10)27But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.”28Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know? (Ps 31:12; Jer 15:14; Jer 22:24; Jer 48:38; Ho 8:8)29O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! (Isa 1:2)30Thus says the Lord: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.” (1Ch 3:17; Jer 36:30; Mt 1:12)