CHAPTER 22
1 The Lord saith these things, Go thou down into the house of the king of Judah, and thou shalt speak there this word,
2 and shalt say, Hear thou the word of the Lord, thou king of Judah, that sittest on the seat of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people, that enter [in] by these gates.
3 The Lord saith these things, Do ye doom, and rightfulness [or right-wiseness], and deliver ye him that is oppressed by violence from the hand of the false challenger; and do not ye make sorry, neither oppress ye wickedly a comeling, and a fatherless child, and a widow, and shed ye not out innocent blood in this place.
4 For if ye doing do this word, kings of the kin of David sitting on his throne shall enter [in] by the gates of this house, and shall ascend or go upon chariots and horses, they, and the servants, and the people of them.
5 That if ye hear not these words, I swore in myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall be into wilderness.
6 For the Lord saith these things on the house of the king of Judah; Gilead, thou art to me the head of the Lebanon; credence be not given to me, if I set not thee a wilderness, cities unhabitable.
7 And I shall hallow on thee a man slaying, and his arms; and they shall cut down thy chosen cedars, and shall cast down into fire.
8 And many folks shall pass by this city, and each man shall say to his neighbour, Why did the Lord thus to this great city?
9 And they shall answer, For they forsook the covenant of their Lord God, and worshipped alien gods, and served them.
10 Do not ye beweep him that is dead, neither wail ye on him by weeping; bewail ye him that goeth out, for he shall no more turn again, neither he shall see the land of his birth.
11 For the Lord saith these things to Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, that reigned for Josiah, his father, He that went out of this place, shall no more turn again hither;
12 but in the place to which I have translated him, there he shall die, and he shall no more see this land.
13 Woe to him that buildeth his house in unrightfulness [or unrightwise-ness], and his solars not in doom; he shall oppress his friend in vain, and he shall not yield his hire to him.
14 Which saith, I shall build to me a large house, and wide solars; which openeth windows to himself, and maketh couples of cedar, and painteth with red colour.
15 Whether thou shalt reign, for thou comparisonest thee to a cedar? whether thy father ate not, and drank, and did doom and rightfulness [or rightwiseness] then, when it was well to him?
16 He deemed the cause of a poor man, and needy, into his good; whether not therefore for he knew me? saith the Lord.
17 Forsooth thine eyes and heart be to avarice, and to shed innocent blood, and to false challenge, and to the performing of evil work.
18 Therefore the Lord saith these things to Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, They shall not bewail him, Woe brother! and woe sister! they shall not sound together to him, Woe lord! and woe noble man!
19 He shall be buried with the burying of an ass, he shall be rotten, and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Ascend [or Go] thou [up] on the Lebanon, and cry thou, and give thy voice in Bashan, and cry to them that pass forth, for all thy lovers be all-broken.
21 I spake to thee in thy plenty, and thou saidest, I shall not hear; this is thy way from thy youth, for thou heardest not my voice.
22 Wind shall feed all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity;
23 and then thou that sittest in the Lebanon, and makest nest in cedars, shalt be shamed, and ashamed of all thy malice. How wailedest thou, when sorrows were come to thee, as the sorrow of a woman travailing of child?
24 I live, saith the Lord, for thou Jeconiah*, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a ring in my right hand, from thence I shall draw away him.
25 And I shall give thee in the hand of them that seek thy life, and in the hand of them whose face thou dreadest, and in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and in the hand of Chaldees.
26 And I shall send thee, and thy mother that engendered thee, into an alien land, in which ye were not born, and there ye shall die;
27 and they shall not turn again into the land, to which they raise their soul, that they turn again thither.
28 Whether this man Jeconiah is an earthen vessel, and all-broken? whether a vessel without all-liking? Why be he and his seed cast away, and cast forth into a land which they knew not?
29 Earth, earth, earth, hear thou the word of the Lord.
30 The Lord saith these things, Write thou this man barren, a man that shall not have prosperity in his days; for of his seed shall be no man, that shall sit on the seat of David, and have power further in Judah.
* CHAPTER 22:24 Also known as Coniah and Jehoiachin.