Jeremiah 22
22
Jeremiah's Message to the Royal House of Judah
1-2The LORD told me to go to the palace of the king of Judah, the descendant of David, and there tell the king, his officials, and the people of Jerusalem to listen to what the LORD had said: 3“I, the LORD, command you to do what is just and right. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. Do not ill-treat or oppress foreigners, orphans, or widows; and do not kill innocent people in this holy place. 4If you really do as I have commanded, then David's descendants will continue to be kings. And they, together with their officials and their people, will continue to pass through the gates of this palace in chariots and on horses. 5#Mt 23.38; Lk 13.35But if you do not obey my commands, then I swear to you that this palace will fall into ruins. I, the LORD, have spoken.
6“To me, Judah's royal palace is as beautiful as the land of Gilead and as the Lebanon Mountains; but I will make it a desolate place where no one lives. 7I am sending men to destroy it. They will all bring their axes, cut down its beautiful cedar pillars, and throw them into the fire.
8“Afterwards many foreigners will pass by and ask one another why I, the LORD, have done such a thing to this great city. 9Then they will answer that it is because you have abandoned your covenant with me, your God, and have worshipped and served other gods.”
Jeremiah's Message concerning Joahaz
10People of Judah, do not weep for King Josiah;
do not mourn his death.
But weep bitterly for Joahaz, his son;
they are taking him away, never to return,
never again to see the land where he was born.
11 #
2 Kgs 23.31–34; 2 Chr 36.1–4 The LORD says concerning Josiah's son Joahaz, who succeeded his father as king of Judah, “He has gone away from here, never to return. 12He will die in the country where they have taken him, and he will never again see this land.”
Jeremiah's Message concerning Jehoiakim
13Doomed is the man who builds his house by injustice
and enlarges it by dishonesty;
who makes his countrymen work for nothing
and does not pay their wages.
14Doomed is the one who says,
“I will build myself a mansion
with spacious rooms upstairs.”
So he puts windows in his house,
panels it with cedar,
and paints it red.
15Does it make you a better king
if you build houses of cedar,
finer than those of others?
Your father enjoyed a full life.
He was always just and fair,
and he prospered in everything he did.
16He gave the poor a fair trial,
and all went well with him.
That is what it means to know the LORD.
17But you can only see your selfish interests;
you kill the innocent
and violently oppress your people.
The LORD has spoken.
18 #
2 Kgs 23.36—24.6; 2 Chr 36.5–7 So then, the LORD says about Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
“No one will mourn his death or say,
‘How terrible, my friend, how terrible!’
No one will weep for him or cry,
‘My lord! My king!’
19With the funeral honours of a donkey,
he will be dragged away
and thrown outside Jerusalem's gates.”
Jeremiah's Message about the Fate of Jerusalem
20People of Jerusalem, go to Lebanon and shout,
go to the land of Bashan and cry;
call out from the mountains of Moab,
because all your allies have been defeated.
21The LORD spoke to you when you were prosperous,
but you refused to listen.
That is what you've done all your life;
you never would obey the LORD.
22Your leaders will be blown away by the wind,
your allies taken as prisoners of war,
your city disgraced and put to shame
because of all the evil you have done.
23You rest secure among the cedars brought from Lebanon;
but how pitiful you'll be when pains strike you,
pains like those of a woman in labour.
God's Judgement on Jehoiachin
24 #
2 Kgs 24.8–15; 2 Chr 36.9–10 The LORD said to King Jehoiachin, son of King Jehoiakim of Judah, “As surely as I am the living God, even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off 25and give you to people you are afraid of, people who want to kill you. I will give you to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his soldiers. 26I am going to force you and your mother into exile. You will go to a country where neither of you was born, and both of you will die there. 27You will long to see this country again, but you will never return.”
28I said, “Has King Jehoiachin become like a broken jar that is thrown away and that no one wants? Is that why he and his children have been taken into exile to a land they know nothing about?”
29O land, land, land!
Listen to what the LORD has said:
30“This man is condemned to lose his children,
to be a man who will never succeed.
He will have no descendants
who will rule in Judah
as David's successors.
I, the LORD, have spoken.”
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Jeremiah 22: GNBDC
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Jeremiah 22
22
1 The LORD said, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there: 2‘Hear the LORD’s word, king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne—you, your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates. 3The LORD says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you do this thing indeed, then kings sitting on David’s throne will enter in by the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses—they, their servants, and their people. 5But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself,” says the LORD, “that this house will become a desolation.”’”
6 For the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah:
“You are Gilead to me,
the head of Lebanon.
Yet surely I will make you a wilderness,
cities which are not inhabited.
7 I will prepare destroyers against you,
everyone with his weapons,
and they will cut down your choice cedars,
and cast them into the fire.
8“Many nations will pass by this city, and they will each ask his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this great city?’ 9Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God, worshiped other gods, and served them.’”
10Don’t weep for the dead.
Don’t bemoan him;
but weep bitterly for him who goes away,
for he will return no more,
and not see his native country.
11 For the LORD says touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went out of this place: “He won’t return there any more. 12But he will die in the place where they have led him captive. He will see this land no more.”
13“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
and his rooms by injustice;
who uses his neighbor’s service without wages,
and doesn’t give him his hire;
14 who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house and spacious rooms,’
and cuts out windows for himself,
with a cedar ceiling,
and painted with red.
15“Should you reign because you strive to excel in cedar?
Didn’t 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;
so then it was well.
Wasn’t this to know me?”
says the LORD.
17 But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness,
for shedding innocent blood,
for oppression, and for doing violence.”
18 Therefore the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
“They won’t lament for him,
saying, ‘Ah my brother!’ or, ‘Ah sister!’
They won’t lament for him,
saying ‘Ah lord!’ or, ‘Ah his glory!’
19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey,
drawn and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
20“Go up to Lebanon, and cry out.
Lift up your voice in Bashan,
and cry from Abarim;
for all your lovers have been destroyed.
21 I spoke to you in your prosperity,
but you said, ‘I will not listen.’
This has been your way from your youth,
that you didn’t obey my voice.
22 The wind will feed all your shepherds,
and your lovers will go into captivity.
Surely then you will be ashamed
and confounded for all your wickedness.
23 Inhabitant of Lebanon,
who makes your nest in the cedars,
how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you,
the pain as of a woman in travail!
24“As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, I would still pluck you from there. 25I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Kasdim. 26I will cast you out with your mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born; and there you will die. 27But to the land to which their soul longs to return, there they will not return.”
28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel?
Is he a vessel in which no one delights?
Why are they cast out, he and his offspring,
and cast into a land which they don’t know?
29 O earth, earth, earth,
hear the LORD’s word!
30 The LORD says,
“Record this man as childless,
a man who will not prosper in his days;
for no more will a man of his offspring prosper,
sitting on David’s throne
and ruling in Judah.”
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