Solemn Warning

22 Jehovah commanded me to go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there deliver the following message: 2 O king of Judah that sittest on the throne of David, listen to the word of Jehovah – thou and thy ministers and thy people who enter these gates. 3 Thus saith Jehovah: Conduct your administration on principles of justice and right, deliver the victims of exploitation from the clutch of the oppressor, refrain from all wrong and violence to the resident foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, and shed no innocent blood in this place. 4 If you carry out this policy faithfully, then kings upon the throne of David shall pass through the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses –they, their ministers and their people. 5 But if you ignore this message (of Mine), then, saith Jehovah, I solemnly swear that this house shall be laid in ruins.

6 For thus saith Jehovah concerning the palace of the king of Judah:

Though thou art to Me as Gilead,

Or the (thick-wooded) summit of Lebanon,

I will turn thee into a desert,

An uninhabited city.

7 I will dedicate men to destroy thee,

Every one with his weapons;

They shall fell thy choicest cedars,

And hurl them into the fire.

8 The people of many nations, as they pass by this city, shall ask one another why Jehovah has dealt thus with this great city, 9 and they shall answer: It is because they abandoned their covenant with Jehovah their God and gave themselves up to the worship and service of other gods.