Exhortation to Repent
“‘You are as Gilead to me,
as the summit of Lebanon,
yet surely I will make you a desert,
an uninhabited city.[a]
7 I will prepare destroyers against you,
each with his weapons;
and they shall cut down your choicest cedars,
and cast them into the fire.
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?” 9 And they will answer, “Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.”’”
nor bemoan him;
but weep bitterly for him who goes away,
for he shall return no more
to see his native land.
Message to the Sons of Josiah
11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josi′ah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josi′ah his father, and who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, 12 but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.”
and his upper rooms by injustice;
who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing,
and does not give him his wages;
14 who says, ‘I will build myself a great house
with spacious upper rooms,’
and cuts out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar,
and painting it with vermilion.
15 Do 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.
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
says the Lord.
17 But you have eyes and heart
only for your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence.”
18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoi′akim the son of Josi′ah, 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!’
19 With the burial of an ass he shall be buried,
dragged and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
and lift up your voice in Bashan;
cry from Ab′arim,
for all your lovers are destroyed.
21 I 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.
22 The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,
and your lovers shall go into captivity;
then you will be ashamed and confounded
because of all your wickedness.
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon,
nested among the cedars,
how you will groan[b] when pangs come upon you,
pain as of a woman in travail!”
Judgment on Coniah (Jehoiachin)
24 “As I live, says the Lord, though Coni′ah the son of Jehoi′akim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off 25 and 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 Nebuchadrez′zar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chalde′ans. 26 I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.”
28 Is this man Coni′ah a despised, broken pot,
a vessel no one cares for?
Why are he and his children hurled and cast
into a land which they do not know?
29 O land, land, land,
hear the word of the Lord!
30 Thus 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.”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 22:6 Cn: Heb cities
- Jeremiah 22:23 Gk Vg Syr: Heb be pitied