“ ‘That is why I will bring disaster on Jeroboam’s house. I will destroy every male in his house, whether slave or freeman in Israel. I will burn down Jeroboam’s house. It will burn like manure until it is gone.
Suppose a rich person wasn’t satisfied with good things ⌞while he was alive⌟ and didn’t even get an honorable burial ⌞after he died⌟. Suppose he had a hundred children and lived for many years. No matter how long he would have lived, it ⌞still⌟ would have been better for him to have been born dead.
“I will devise four ways to punish them,” declares the Lord. “I will send swords to kill, dogs to drag away, and birds and animals to devour and destroy.
This is what the Lord says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his own corpse will be thrown out and exposed to the heat of day and the cold of night.
On a day of fasting, you must read from the scroll the Lord’s message that you wrote as I dictated. You must read it to the people in the Lord’s temple. You must also read it to all the people of Judah when they come from their cities.
They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky. These are the things that they had loved, served, gone after, sought, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered or buried, but they will become manure on the ground.