UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

JER C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36 C37 C38 C39 C40 C41 C42 C43 C44 C45 C46 C47 C48 C49 C50 C51 C52

UST JER Chapter 22

◄ JER 22 ► ║ ═ ©

22 Yahweh gave me this message: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and tell him this message. 2 Say, ‘Listen to what Yahweh has to say to you, king of Judah, you who rule in succession to King David. You, your officials, and your people who enter through these gates must listen. 3 This is what Yahweh says: Treat people fairly and do what is right. Rescue anyone who has had his things stolen. Rescue that person from the power of the one oppressing them. Do not mistreat foreigners who are living among you, or orphans, or widows. Do not harm anyone, and do not kill innocent people in this place. 4 If you carefully obey these commands, then there will always be a king from David’s royal line ruling in Jerusalem. Each king with his officials and his people will ride through the gates of this palace in chariots and on horses. 5 However, if you refuse to obey these commands, then I, Yahweh, swear by my own name that this palace will become a pile of rubble.’ ””

6 This is what Yahweh says about the palace of the king of Judah:

“I value this palace as much as I value the forests in the region of Gilead

and the mountains in Lebanon.

Nevertheless, I will certainly make it

a desolate place where no one lives.

7 I will send enemy troops to destroy it;

each soldier with his own weapons.

They will chop down the fine cedar beams

and throw them into the fire.

8 People from many nations will pass by the ruins of this city and ask one another, ‘Why did Yahweh do this to such a great city?’ 9 Other people will answer, ‘He did it because his people stopped obeying the agreement they had made with Yahweh their God and instead worshiped and served other gods.’ ”

10 Do not weep for king Josiah who died; do not mourn for him. Instead, weep bitterly for King Jehoahaz, his son, because he will go away into exile, weep because he will never come back and he will never see his homeland again.

11 Yahweh says this about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king after his father Josiah and who was captured and taken away from here to Babylon: “He will never come back here again. 12 He will die in the place where his enemies took him, and he will never return to this land.”

13 Yahweh says, “Terrible things will happen to King Jehoiakim!

He does not act fairly when he forces people to build his palace.

He forces his neighbors to work for nothing

and does not pay them for their labor.

14 He says, “I will force my workers to build me a huge palace

with large, spacious rooms on the upper level.

I will make them cut out windows for me,

and panel the walls with boards made of cedar wood,

and paint it bright red.”

15 Having a beautiful palace with cedar paneling does not make a king great! Your father Josiah had plenty of things to eat and drink, but he always treated people fairly and did what was right. Because of that, things went well for him.

16 Josiah made sure that judges treated poor and needy people fairly, and things went well because of that. That is what it means to truly know me.” That is what Yahweh declares.

17 “But Jehoiakim, you pay attention to nothing and desire nothing except getting things by cheating people and shedding the blood of innocent people, and oppressing people, and you use force to get what you want.

18 Therefore, this is what Yahweh says about Jehoiakim the son of King Josiah, king of Judah:

“When he dies people will not mourn for him, saying,

‘How sad, my brother! How sad, my sister!’

People will not mourn for him, saying,

‘How sad, my master! How sad for him who was majestic!’

19 People will bury his corpse the way they dispose of a dead donkey:

they will drag his body out

and throw it beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

20 You people of Jerusalem, go up to Lebanon and cry out!

Shout loudly in Bashan!

Cry out from Abarim,

because your enemies have destroyed all the nations that were your political allies.

21 I warned you when things were going well for you,

but you said, ‘I will not listen.’

You have behaved this way ever since you were young,

for you have never obeyed me.

22 I will punish all your leaders;

it will be as though they have been blown away by the wind.

Your enemies will take your political allies away as prisoners.

Then you will certainly feel deeply ashamed and everyone will despise you

because of all the evil things you have done.

23 You people of Jerusalem who think you are as safe as a bird nesting in the cedar trees that grow in Lebanon,

people will greatly pity you when you begin to suffer,

you will suffer severely as a woman does when she is giving birth!”

24 Yahweh declares, “As surely as I am alive, even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a ring on my finger that shows that I am the king, I would still pull you off. 25 You are afraid of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his huge army, because they are wanting to kill you. I will enable them to capture you. 26 I will expel you and your mother who gave birth to you into another land where neither of you were born, and you will both die there. 27 Neither of you will ever return to this land that you both will greatly desire to return to.”

28 People say, “Coniah will be like a broken pot that people despise or a vessel which no one wants.

Enemy soldiers will force him and his children to go to a foreign land that they are not familiar with.”

29 People of this land, people of this land, people of this land,

listen to what Yahweh says!

30 This is what Yahweh says:

“Write down in the record about the kings of Judah that it will be as though this man has no descendants,

and that he has not been successful during his lifetime,

because none of his children will become king

and rule in succession of King David as king over Judah.”