Jeremiah 22 - The Scriptures 1998

¹ Thus said יהוה, “Go down to the house of the sovereign of Yehuḏ

² and shall say, ‘Hear the word of יהוה, O sovereign of Yehuḏ

³ ‘Thus said יהוה, “Do right-ruling and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do not maltreat nor do violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴ “For if you certainly do this word, then there shall enter in by the gates of this house sovereigns sitting on the throne of Dawiḏ

⁵ “But if you do not obey these words, I swear by Myself,” declares יהוה, “that this house shall become a ruin.” ’ ”

⁶ For thus said יהוה  to the house of the sovereign of Yehuḏ

⁷ “And I shall prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons. And they shall cut down your choice cedars and throw them into the fire.

⁸ “And many gentiles shall pass by this city, and they shall say to one another, ‘Why has יהוה  done so to this great city?’

⁹ “Then they shall say, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of יהוה  their Elohim, and bowed themselves to other mighty ones and served them.’ ”

¹⁰ Do not weep for the dead, nor mourn for him. Weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall never come back nor see the land of his birth.

¹¹ For thus said יהוה  concerning Shallum son of Yoshiyahu, sovereign of Yehuḏ

¹² but he shall die in the place where they have exiled him, and not see this land again.

¹³ “Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness and his rooms without right-ruling, who uses his neighbour’s service without wages and does not give him his wages,

¹⁴ who says, ‘I am going to build myself a wide house with spacious rooms, and cut out windows for it, panelling it with cedar and painting it in red.’

¹⁵ “Do you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do right-ruling and righteousness? Then it was well with him.

¹⁶ “He defended the cause of the poor and needy – then it was well. Was this not to know Me?” declares יהוה.

¹⁷ “But your eyes and your heart are only upon your own greedy gain, and on shedding innocent blood, and on oppression and on doing violence.”

¹⁸ Therefore thus said יהוה  concerning Yehoyaqim son of Yoshiyahu, sovereign of Yehuḏ

¹⁹ “He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged and thrown outside the gates of Yerushalayim.

²⁰ “Go up to Leḇ

²¹ “I have spoken to you in your ease, but you said, ‘I do not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, for you did not obey My voice.

²² “Let all your shepherds be devoured by the wind, and your lovers go into captivity. Then you shall be ashamed and humiliated for all your evil.

²³ “You who dwell in Leḇ

²⁴ “As I live,” declares יהוה, “though Konyahu son of Yehoyaqim, sovereign of Yehuḏ

²⁵ and I shall give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear, into the hand of Neḇ

²⁶ “And I shall hurl you out, and your mother who bore you, into another land where you were not born, and there you shall die.

²⁷ “But they shall not return to the land to which their being yearns to return.

²⁸ “Is this man Konyahu a despised broken pot, or an undesirable vessel? Why are they hurled out, he and his descendants, and cast into a land which they do not know?

²⁹ “O land, land, land! Hear the word of יהוה!

³⁰ “Thus said יהוה, ‘Write this man down as childless, a strong man who is not to prosper in his days, for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of Dawiḏ