Jeremiah, 22

1. The LORD told me this: Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there deliver this message:

1. Yahweh said this, 'Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there say this word,

2. You shall say: Listen to the word of the LORD, king of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you, your ministers, and your people that enter by these gates!

2. "Listen to the word of Yahweh, king of Judah now occupying the throne of David, you, your officials and your people who go through these gates.

3. Thus says the LORD: Do what is right and just. Rescue the victim from the hand of his oppressor. Do not wrong or oppress the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

3. Yahweh says this: Act uprightly and justly; rescue from the hands of the oppressor anyone who has been wronged, do not exploit or ill-treat the stranger, the orphan, the widow; shed no innocent blood in this place.

4. If you carry out these commands, kings who succeed to the throne of David will continue to enter the gates of this palace, riding in chariots or mounted on horses, with their ministers, and their people.

4. For if you are scrupulous in obeying this command, then kings occupying the throne of David will continue to make their entry through the gates of this palace riding in chariots or on horseback, they, their officials and their people.

5. But if you do not obey these commands, I swear by myself, says the LORD: this palace shall become rubble.

5. But if you do not listen to these words, then I swear by myself, Yahweh declares, this palace shall become a ruin!

6. For thus says the LORD concerning the palace of the king of Judah: Though you be to me like Gilead, like the peak of Lebanon, I will turn you into a waste, a city uninhabited.

6. "Yes, this is what Yahweh says about the palace of the king of Judah: You are like Gilead to me, like a peak of Lebanon. All the same, I will reduce you to a desert, to uninhabited towns.

7. Against you I will send destroyers, each with his axe: They shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

7. I dedicate men to destroy you, each man with his weapons; they will cut down your finest cedars and throw them on the fire.

8. Many people will pass by this city and ask one another: "Why has the LORD done this to so great a city?"

8. "And when many nations pass this city, they will say to one another: Why has Yahweh treated this great city like this?

9. And the answer will be given: "Because they have deserted their covenant with the LORD, their God, by worshiping and serving strange gods."

9. And the answer will be: Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God to worship other gods and serve them." '

10. Weep not for him who is dead, mourn not for him! Weep rather for him who is going away; never again will he see the land of his birth.

10. Do not weep for the man who is dead, do not raise the dirge for him. Weep rather for the one who has gone away, since he will never come back, never see his native land again.

11. Thus says the LORD concerning Shallum, son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father as king. He has left this place never to return.

11. For this is what Yahweh has said about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded Josiah his father and was forced to leave this place, 'He will never come back to it

12. Rather, he shall die in the place where they exiled him; this land he shall not see again.

12. but will die in the place to which he has been taken captive; and he will never see this country again.

13. Woe to him who builds his house on wrong, his terraces on injustice; Who works his neighbor without pay, and gives him no wages.

13. 'Disaster for the man who builds his house without uprightness, his upstairs rooms without fair judgement, who makes his fellow-man work for nothing, without paying him his wages,

14. Who says, "I will build myself a spacious house, with airy rooms," Who cuts out windows for it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermillion.

14. who says, "I shall build myself a spacious palace with airy upstairs rooms," who makes windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it vermilion.

15. Must you prove your rank among kings by competing with them in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink? He did what was right and just, and it went well with him.

15. Are you more of a king because of your passion for cedar? Did your father go hungry or thirsty? But he did what is just and upright, so all went well for him.

16. Because he dispensed justice to the weak and the poor, it went well with him. Is this not true knowledge of me? says the LORD.

16. He used to examine the cases of poor and needy, then all went well. Is not that what it means to know me? Yahweh demands.

17. But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except on your own gain, On shedding innocent blood, on practicing oppression and extortion.

17. You on the other hand have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.'

18. Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not lament him, "Alas! my brother"; "Alas! sister." They shall not lament him, "Alas, Lord! alas, Majesty!"

18. That is why Yahweh says this about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: 'No lamenting for him, "My poor brother! My poor sister!" No lamenting for him, "His poor lordship! His poor majesty!"

19. The burial of an ass shall he be given, dragged forth and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

19. He will have a donkey's funeral -- dragged away and thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem.'

20. Scale Lebanon and cry out, in Bashan lift up your voice; Cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are crushed.

20. 'Climb the Lebanon range and shriek, raise your voice in Bashan, shriek from the Abarim, for all your lovers have been ruined!

21. I spoke to you when you were secure, but you answered, "I will not listen." This has been your way from your youth, not to listen to my voice.

21. I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, "I will not listen!" From your youth this has been how you behaved, refusing to listen to my voice.

22. The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, your lovers shall go into exile. Surely then you shall be ashamed and confounded because of all your wickedness.

22. The wind will shepherd all your shepherds away and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will blush deep with shame at the thought of all your wickedness.

23. You who dwell on Lebanon, who nest in the cedars, How you shall groan when pains come upon you, like the pangs of a woman in travail!

23. You who have made the Lebanon your home and made your nest among the cedars, how you will groan when anguish overtakes you, pangs like those of a woman in labour!

24. As I live, says the LORD, if you, Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, are a signet ring on my right hand, I will snatch you from it.

24. 'As I live, Yahweh declares, even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I would still wrench you off!

25. I will deliver you into the hands of those who seek your life; the hands of those whom you fear; the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans.

25. I shall hand you over to those determined to kill you, to those you dread, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to the Chaldaeans.

26. I will cast you out, you and the mother who bore you, into a different land from the one you were born in; and there you shall die.

26. I shall hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country; you were not born there but you will both die there.

27. Neither of them shall come back to the land for which they yearn.

27. They will not return to the country to which they desperately long to return.'

28. Is this man Coniah a vessel despised, to be broken up, an instrument that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants cast out? why thrown into a land they know not?

28. Is he a shoddy broken pot, this man Coniah, a crock that no one wants? Why are he and his offspring ejected, hurled into a country they know nothing of?

29. O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD--

29. O land, land, land, listen to the word of Yahweh!

30. Thus says the LORD: Write this man down as one childless, who will never thrive in his lifetime! No descendant of his shall achieve a seat on the throne of David as ruler again over Judah.

30. Yahweh says this, 'List this man as: Childless; a man who made a failure of his life, since none of his offspring will succeed in occupying the throne of David, or ruling in Judah again.'