 1 Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this Word there. 2 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 in by these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: Do judgment and righteousness and deliver those who are robbed by the oppressors's hand. Do no wrong. Do no violence to strangers, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you do these things, then kings will enter in by the gates of this house to sit on the throne of David and ride in chariots and on horses. He, and his servants, and his people will come. 5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a ruin. 6 For thus says the Lord to the house of the king of Judah, You are Gilead to me and the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities with no people. 7 I will prepare destroyers against you, each one with his weapons. They will cut down your choice cedars and throw them into the fire. 8 Many nations will pass by this city and they will say each one to his neighbor, Why has the Lord done this to this great city? 9 Then they will answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them, 10 do not weep for the dead nor moan for them. But weep bitterly for those who go away. For they will no longer return to their native country. 11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of King Josiah of Judah who reigned in the place of Josiah his father who went forth out of this place: He will not return there any more. 12 But he will die in the place where they have exiled him and see this land no more. 13 Woe to those who build their house by unrighteousness and their upper rooms without justice, Their neighbor serves without pay, and he does not give him his work. 14 They say, I will build a wide house and large rooms for myself and cut out windows and puts in a cedar ceiling and paint it with vermilion. 15 Do you reign, because you lust to excel 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 with him. Was this not to know me? says the Lord. 17 But your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your unjust gain, and to shed innocent blood, and for cruelty, and to do violence. 18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of King Josiah of Judah, They shall not mourn for him, saying, Ah, my brother. Or, Ah, sister. They shall not mourn for him, saying, Ah, lord. Or, Ah, his glory. 19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. 20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry. And lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim, for all your lovers are destroyed. 21 I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, I will not hear. This has been your way from your youth, for you have not obeyed my voice. 22 The wind will eat up all your shepherds and your lovers will go into captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated for all your wickedness. 23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, nested in the cedars, how gracious will will you be when pangs come upon you with pain like a woman giving birth. 24 As I live, says the Lord, though Coniah the son of King Jehoiakim of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet I would pull you out of there. 25 I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear, even into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 I will cast you and your 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 desire to return, there they shall not return. 28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken jar? Is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendants, and are cast into a land which they do not know? 29 O earth, earth, earth. Hear the Word of the Lord. 30 Thus says the Lord: Write this man down as childless, a man who will not be blessed in his days. None of his descendants will be blessed, sitting on the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.
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