Jeremiah 22
22
The Lord Will Punish the King of Judah
1-3The Lord sent me to the palace of the king of Judah to speak to the king, his officials, and everyone else who was there. The Lord told me to say:
I am the Lord, so pay attention! You have been allowing people to cheat, rob, and take advantage of widows, orphans, and foreigners who live here. Innocent people have become victims of injustice, and some of them have even been killed. But now I command you to do what is right and see that justice is done. Rescue everyone who has suffered from injustice.
4If you obey me, the kings from David's family will continue to rule Judah from this palace. They and their officials will ride in and out on their horses or in their chariots. 5#Mt 23.28; Lk 13.35. But if you ignore me, I promise in my own name that this palace will lie in ruins. 6Listen to what I think about it:
The palace of Judah's king
is as glorious as Gilead
or Lebanon's highest peaks.
But it will be as empty
as a ghost-town
when I'm through with it.
7I'll send troops to tear it apart,
and its beautiful cedar beams
will be used for firewood.
8People from different nations will pass by and ask, “Why did the Lord do this to such a great city as Jerusalem?” 9Others will answer, “It's because the people worshiped foreign gods and broke the agreement that the Lord their God had made with them.”
King Jehoahaz
The Lord said:
10King Josiah is dead,
so don't mourn for him.#22.10 King Josiah … him: The Hebrew text has “don't mourn for the dead one,” meaning King Josiah, who ruled 640–609 b.c.
Instead, mourn for his son
King Jehoahaz,
dragged off to another country,#22.10 his son King Jehoahaz … country: The Hebrew text has “the one who was dragged off to another country,” meaning King Jehoahaz, who ruled for three months in 609 b.c.
never to return.
11-12 #
2 K 23.31-34; 2 Ch 36.1-4. Jehoahaz#22.11,12 Jehoahaz: The Hebrew text has “Shallum,” another name for Jehoahaz. became king of Judah after his father King Josiah died. But Jehoahaz was taken as a prisoner to a foreign country. Now I, the Lord, promise that he will die there without ever seeing his own land again.
King Jehoiakim
The Lord told me to say:
* 13King Jehoiakim,#22.13 Jehoiakim: See the note at 1.3. you are doomed!
You built a palace
with large rooms upstairs.
14You put in big windows
and used cedar paneling
and red paint.
But you were unfair
and forced the builders to work
without pay.
* 15More cedar in your palace
doesn't make you a better king
than your father Josiah.
He always did right—
he gave justice to the poor
and was honest.
16That's what it means
to truly know me.
So he lived a comfortable life
and always had enough
to eat and drink.
17But all you think about
is how to cheat
or abuse or murder
some innocent victim.
18 #
2 K 23.36—24.6; 2 Ch 36.5-7. Jehoiakim, no one will mourn
at your funeral.
They won't turn to each other
and ask,
“Why did our great king
have to die?”
19You will be given a burial
fit for a donkey;
your body will be dragged
outside the city gates
and tossed in the dirt.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
King Jehoiachin and the People of Jerusalem
The Lord told me to say:
20People of Jerusalem,
the nations#22.20 nations: Or “gods.” you trusted
have been crushed.
Go to Lebanon and weep;
cry in the land of Bashan
and in Moab.
21When times were good,
I warned you.
But you ignored me,
just as you have done
since Israel was young.
22Now you will be disgraced
because of your sins.
Your leaders will be swept away
by the wind,
and the nations you trusted
will be captured and dragged
to a foreign country.
23Those who live in the palace
paneled with cedar#22.23 who live in the palace paneled with cedar: The Hebrew text has “who live in Lebanon and who nest among the cedars,” which probably means Forest Hall in the royal palace at Jerusalem, which was paneled with cedar and had cedar columns and a cedar ceiling, all from Lebanon (see 1 Kings 7.2,3).
will groan with pain
like women giving birth.
24 #
2 K 24.8-15; 2 Ch 36.9,10. King Jehoiachin,#22.24 Jehoiachin: The Hebrew text has “Coniah,” another form of Jehoiachin's name; he ruled for three months in 598 b.c. son of Jehoiakim,#22.24 Jehoiakim: See the note at 1.3. even if you were the ring I wear as the sign of my royal power, I would still pull you from my finger. 25I would hand you over to the enemy you fear, to King Nebuchadnezzar#22.25 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2. and his army, who want to kill you. 26You and your mother#22.26 mother: See the note at 13.18. were born in Judah, but I will throw both of you into a foreign country, where you will die, 27longing to return home.
28Jehoiachin, you are unwanted
like a broken clay pot.
So you and your children
will be thrown into a country
you know nothing about.
29Land of Judah, I am the Lord.
Now listen to what I say!
30Erase the names
of Jehoiachin's children
from the royal records.
He is a complete failure,
and so none of them
will ever be king.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
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Jeremiah 22: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 22
22
1Thus saith Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people who enter in through these gates. 3Thus saith Jehovah: Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor; and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place. 4For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in through the gates of this house kings sitting in the place of David upon his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, — he, and his servants, and his people. 5But if ye will not hear these words, I have sworn by myself, saith Jehovah, that this house shall become a waste. 6For thus saith Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou art a Gilead unto me, the summit of Lebanon: verily I will make thee a wilderness, cities not inhabited. 7And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down the choice of thy cedars, and cast them into the fire. 8And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this great city? 9And they shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah their God#GodHebrew: Elohim and worshipped other gods, and served them.
10Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. 11For thus saith Jehovah concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall not return thither any more; 12for he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more. 13Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his upper chambers by injustice; that taketh his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not his earning; 14that saith, I will build me a wide house, and spacious upper chambers; and he cutteth out for himself windows; and it is wainscoted with cedar, and painted with vermilion. 15Shalt thou reign, because thou viest with the cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice? Then it was well with him. 16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this to know me? saith Jehovah. 17But thine eyes and thy heart are only on thine extortion, and on the blood of the innocent, to shed it, and on oppression and on violence, to do it. 18Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah: They shall not lament for him, Ah, my brother! or, Ah, sister! They shall not lament for him, Ah, lord! or Ah, his glory! 19He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, dragged along and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and give forth thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the heights of Abarim: for all thy lovers are destroyed. 21I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy way from thy youth, that thou hearkenedst not unto my voice. 22The wind shall feed on all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; surely, then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness. 23Thou inhabitress of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how pitiful shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, pain as of a woman in travail! 24As I live, saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet upon my right hand, yet will I pluck thee thence; 25and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them before whom thou art afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. 27And into the land whereunto they lift up their souls to return, thither shall they not return. 28Is this man Coniah a despised broken vase? a vessel wherein is no delight? Wherefore are they thrown out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? 29O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah! 30Thus saith Jehovah: Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.