¹ So says the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, ² And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people that enter in by these gates ³ So says the LORD; Execute you 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, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴ For if you do this thing indeed, then will there 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 the LORD, that this house will become a desolation. ⁶ For so says the LORD to the king's house of Judah; you are Gilead to me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited . ⁷ And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons: and they will cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. ⁸ And many nations will pass by this city, and they will say every man to his neighbour, why has the LORD done so to this great city? ⁹ Then they will answer, Because they have abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them. ¹⁰ Weep you not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sorely for him that goes away: for he will return no more, nor see his native country. ¹¹ For so says the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forward out of this place; He will not return there any more ¹² But he will die in the place where they have led him captive, and will see this land no more. ¹³ Woe to him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that uses his neighbour's service without wages, and gives him not for his work; ¹⁴ That says, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cuts him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. ¹⁵ Will you reign, because you closest yourself in cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? ¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy then it was well with him: was not this to know me? says the LORD. ¹⁷ But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do [it]. ¹⁸ Therefore so says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They will not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they will not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! ¹⁹ He will be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forward beyond the gates of Jerusalem. ²⁰ Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all your lovers are destroyed. ²¹ I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed8085> not my voice. ²² The wind will eat up all your pastors, and your lovers will go into captivity: surely then will you be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness. ²³ O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makes your nest in the cedars, how gracious will you be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in labour! ²⁴ As I live, says the LORD, even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you From there; ²⁵ And I will give you into the hand of them that seek your life, and into the hand of them whose face you fears, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. ²⁶ And I will cast you out, and your mother that bare you, into another country, where you were not born; and there will you die. ²⁷ But to the land to which they desire to return, there will they not return. ²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? ²⁹ O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. ³⁰ So says the LORD, Write you this man childless, a man that will not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed will prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.