Jeremiah - Chapter 22

Jeremiah · Chapter 22

1Verse 1. Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Juda, and there you shall speak this word, 2Verse 2. And you shall say: Hear the word of the Lord, king of Juda, that sittest upon the throne of David: you and your servants, and your people, who enter in by these gates. 3Verse 3. Thus says the Lord: Execute judgment and justice, and deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor: and afflict not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, nor oppress them unjustly: and shed not innocent blood in this place. 4Verse 4. For if you will do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house, kings of the race of David sitting upon his throne, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants, and their people. 5Verse 5. But if you will not hearken to these words: I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. 6Verse 6. For thus says the Lord to the house of the king of Juda: You are to me Galaad the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities not habitable. 7Verse 7. And I will prepare against you the destroyer and his weapons: and they shall cut down your chosen cedars, and shall cast them headlong into the fire. 8Verse 8. And many nations shall pass by this city: and they shall say every man to his neighbor: Why has the Lord done so to this great city? 9Verse 9. And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and have adored strange gods, and served them. 10Verse 10. Weep not for him that is dead, nor bemoan him with your tears: lament him that goes away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. 11Verse 11. For thus says the Lord to Sellum the son of Josias the king of Juda, who reigned instead of his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall return here no more: 12Verse 12. But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall he die, and he shall not see this land any more. 13Verse 13. Woe to him that builds up his house by injustice, and his chambers not in judgment: that will oppress his friend without cause, and will not pay him his wages. 14Verse 14. Who says: I will build me a wide house, and large chambers: who opens to himself windows, and makes roofs of cedar, and paints them with vermilion. 15Verse 15. Shall you reign, because you compare yourself to the cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and it was then well with him? 16Verse 16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good: was it not therefore because he knew me, says the Lord? 17Verse 17. But your eyes and your heart are set upon covetousness, and upon shedding innocent blood, and upon oppression, and running after evil works. 18Verse 18. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda: They shall not mourn for him, Alas, my brother, and, Alas, sister: they shall not lament for him, Alas, my lord, or, Alas, the noble one. 19Verse 19. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem. 20Verse 20. Go up to Libanus, and cry: and lift up your voice in Basan, and cry to them that pass by, for all your lovers are destroyed. 21Verse 21. I spoke to you in your prosperity: and you said: I will not hear: this has been your way from your youth, because you have not heard my voice. 22Verse 22. The wind shall feed all your pastors, and your lovers shall go into captivity and then shall you be confounded, and ashamed of all your wickedness. 23Verse 23. You that sit in Libanus, and make your nest in the cedars, how have you mourned when sorrows came upon you, as the pains of a woman in labor? 24Verse 24. As I live, says the Lord, if Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him from there. 25Verse 25. And I will give you into the hand of them that seek your life, and into the hand of them whose face you fear, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26Verse 26. And I will send you, and your mother that bore you, into a strange country, in which you were not born, and there you shall die: 27Verse 27. And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they lift up their mind to return there. 28Verse 28. Is this man Jechonias an earthen and a broken vessel? is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they do not know? 29Verse 29. O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. 30Verse 30. Thus says the Lord: Write this man barren, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that shall sit upon the throne of David, and have power any more in Juda.