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¹ So says Jehovah, Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak this Word there,² and say, Hear the Word of Jehovah, O king of Judah who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.³ So says Jehovah, Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one robbed from the oppressor's hand. And do not oppress the alien, the widow, or the orphan, and do not do violence nor shed innocent blood in this place.⁴ For if you indeed do this thing, then there shall enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people.⁵ But if you will not hear these Words, I swear by Myself, says Jehovah, that this house shall become a ruin.⁶ For so says Jehovah concerning the king of Judah's house, You are Gilead to Me, the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities not inhabited.⁷ And I will consecrate destroyers against you, each one with his weapons; and they will cut down your choice cedars and make them fall into the fire.⁸ And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall each say to one another, Why has Jehovah done this to this great city?⁹ Then they will answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah their God and worshiped other gods and served them.

¹⁰ Weep not for the ones who died nor moan for him; weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more, nor see the land of his birth.¹¹ For so says Jehovah concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in his father Josiah's place, who went forth from this place: he shall not return there any more.¹² But he shall die there in the place where they have exiled him, and he will see this land no more.¹³ Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness, and his upper rooms without justice. His neighbor serves without pay, and he does not give him for his work;¹⁴ who says, I will build myself a wide house and large upper rooms. And he cuts out windows for it and covers with cedar, and paints with vermilion.¹⁵ Do you reign because you lust to excel in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well for him.¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was well. Was this not to know Me, says Jehovah?¹⁷ But your eyes and your heart lust for nothing but your unjust gain, and to shed innocent blood, and oppression, and to do violence.¹⁸ So Jehovah says this concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, They shall not mourn for him, saying , Ah, my brother! Or, Ah, sister! They shall not mourn for him, saying , Ah, lord! Or, Ah, his glory!¹⁹ He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn beyond the gates of Jerusalem and thrown out.

²⁰ Go up to Lebanon and cry. And lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry out from Abarim; for all those loving you are destroyed.²¹ I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, I will not hear. This has been your way from your youth, for you have not obeyed My voice.²² Those feeding you shall feed the wind, and those loving you shall go into captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and will blush for all your wickedness.²³ One dwelling in Lebanon, nested in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs come to you, the pain as of a woman in labor!²⁴ As I live, says Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah were the signet on My right hand, yet I would tear you out of there!²⁵ And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.²⁶ And I will cast you and your mother who bore you into another country, there where you were not born; and there you shall die.²⁷ But concerning the land which they lift up with their soul, to return there, they shall not return there.²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised, broken jar, or a vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they hurled, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they do not know?²⁹ O earth, earth, earth! Hear the Word of Jehovah!³⁰ So says Jehovah, Write this man childless, a man who will not prosper in his days. For not one from his seed will succeed, a man sitting on the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.