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A Message for Judah’s Kings
This is what the LORD said to me: “Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah. Say to him,
This is what the LORD said to me: “Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah. Say to him,
A Warning for Judah's Kings
Thus saith Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Thus saith Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
‘Listen to this message from the LORD, you king of Judah, sitting on David’s throne. Let your attendants and your people listen, too.
and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people who enter in through these gates.
This is what the LORD says: Be fair-minded and just. Do what is right! Help those who have been robbed; rescue them from their oppressors. Quit your evil deeds! Do not mistreat foreigners, orphans, and widows. Stop murdering the innocent!
Thus saith Jehovah: Execute 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, or the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place.
If you obey me, there will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. The king will ride through the palace gates in chariots and on horses, with his parade of attendants and subjects.
For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in through the gates of this house kings sitting in the place of David upon his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, -- he, and his servants, and his people.
But if you refuse to pay attention to this warning, I swear by my own name, says the LORD, that this palace will become a pile of rubble.’”
But if ye will not hear these words, I have sworn by myself, saith Jehovah, that this house shall become a waste.
A Message about the Palace
Now this is what the LORD says concerning Judah’s royal palace:
“I love you as much as fruitful Gilead
and the green forests of Lebanon.
But I will turn you into a desert,
with no one living within your walls.
A Warning about the Palace
For thus saith Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou art a Gilead unto me, the summit of Lebanon: verily I will make thee a wilderness, cities not inhabited.
For thus saith Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou art a Gilead unto me, the summit of Lebanon: verily I will make thee a wilderness, cities not inhabited.
I will call for wreckers,
who will bring out their tools to dismantle you.
They will tear out all your fine cedar beams
and throw them on the fire.
who will bring out their tools to dismantle you.
They will tear out all your fine cedar beams
and throw them on the fire.
And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down the choice of thy cedars, and cast [them] into the fire.
“People from many nations will pass by the ruins of this city and say to one another, ‘Why did the LORD destroy such a great city?’
And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this great city?
And the answer will be, ‘Because they violated their covenant with the LORD their God by worshiping other gods.’”
A Message about Jehoahaz
A Message about Jehoahaz
And they shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss.
Instead, weep for the captive king being led away!
For he will never return to see his native land again.
Instead, weep for the captive king being led away!
For he will never return to see his native land again.
A Warning about Jehoahaz
Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; [but] weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; [but] weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
For thus saith Jehovah concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall not return thither any more;
He will die in a distant land and will never again see his own country.”
A Message about Jehoiakim
A Message about Jehoiakim
for he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
A Warning about Jehoiakim
Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his upper chambers by injustice; that taketh his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not his earning;
Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his upper chambers by injustice; that taketh his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not his earning;
He says, ‘I will build a magnificent palace
with huge rooms and many windows.
I will panel it throughout with fragrant cedar
and paint it a lovely red.’
with huge rooms and many windows.
I will panel it throughout with fragrant cedar
and paint it a lovely red.’
that saith, I will build me a wide house, and spacious upper chambers; and he cutteth out for himself windows; and it is wainscoted with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
But a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king!
Your father, Josiah, also had plenty to eat and drink.
But he was just and right in all his dealings.
That is why God blessed him.
Your father, Josiah, also had plenty to eat and drink.
But he was just and right in all his dealings.
That is why God blessed him.
Shalt thou reign, because thou viest with the cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice? Then it was well with him.
He gave justice and help to the poor and needy,
and everything went well for him.
Isn’t that what it means to know me?”
says the LORD.
and everything went well for him.
Isn’t that what it means to know me?”
says the LORD.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this to know me? saith Jehovah.
“But you! You have eyes only for greed and dishonesty!
You murder the innocent,
oppress the poor, and reign ruthlessly.”
You murder the innocent,
oppress the poor, and reign ruthlessly.”
But thine eyes and thy heart are only on thine extortion, and on the blood of the innocent, to shed it, and on oppression and on violence, to do it.
Therefore, this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah:
“The people will not mourn for him, crying to one another,
‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’
His subjects will not mourn for him, crying,
‘Alas, our master is dead! Alas, his splendor is gone!’
“The people will not mourn for him, crying to one another,
‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’
His subjects will not mourn for him, crying,
‘Alas, our master is dead! Alas, his splendor is gone!’
Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah: They shall not lament for him, Ah, my brother! or, Ah, sister! They shall not lament for him, Ah, lord! or Ah, his glory!
He will be buried like a dead donkey —
dragged out of Jerusalem and dumped outside the gates!
dragged out of Jerusalem and dumped outside the gates!
He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, dragged along and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and give forth thy voice in Bashan, and cry from [the heights of] Abarim: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
I warned you when you were prosperous,
but you replied, ‘Don’t bother me.’
You have been that way since childhood —
you simply will not obey me!
but you replied, ‘Don’t bother me.’
You have been that way since childhood —
you simply will not obey me!
I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity; [but] thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy way from thy youth, that thou hearkenedst not unto my voice.
And now the wind will blow away your allies.
All your friends will be taken away as captives.
Surely then you will see your wickedness and be ashamed.
All your friends will be taken away as captives.
Surely then you will see your wickedness and be ashamed.
The wind shall feed on all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; surely, then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
It may be nice to live in a beautiful palace
paneled with wood from the cedars of Lebanon,
but soon you will groan with pangs of anguish —
anguish like that of a woman in labor.
paneled with wood from the cedars of Lebanon,
but soon you will groan with pangs of anguish —
anguish like that of a woman in labor.
Thou inhabitress of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how pitiful shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, pain as of a woman in travail!
A Warning for Jehoiachin
[As] I live, saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet upon my right hand, yet will I pluck thee thence;
[As] I live, saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet upon my right hand, yet will I pluck thee thence;
and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them before whom thou art afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
I will expel you and your mother from this land, and you will die in a foreign country, not in your native land.
And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
You will never again return to the land you yearn for.
And into the land whereunto they lift up their souls to return, thither shall they not return.
“Why is this man Jehoiachin like a discarded, broken jar?
Why are he and his children to be exiled to a foreign land?
Why are he and his children to be exiled to a foreign land?
Is this man Coniah a despised broken vase? a vessel wherein is no delight? Wherefore are they thrown out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
O earth, earth, earth!
Listen to this message from the LORD!
Listen to this message from the LORD!
O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah!
This is what the LORD says:
‘Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was childless.
He is a failure,
for none of his children will succeed him on the throne of David
to rule over Judah.’
‘Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was childless.
He is a failure,
for none of his children will succeed him on the throne of David
to rule over Judah.’
Thus saith Jehovah: Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.