‘This place is as beautiful as Gilead!
    It is as beautiful as Lebanon's mountains.
But I will cause it to become a wilderness,
    a place where nobody lives any more.
⁷ I will send enemies to destroy this place.
    They will use their weapons to knock it all down.
They will cut down the strong beams of cedar wood.
    They will throw them into the fire.

‘Terrible trouble will happen to this man!
He cheats people
    so that he can build a beautiful palace for himself.
He does not do what is right and fair.
He does not pay the people who work for him.
    His own men have to work for nothing.
¹⁴ He says, “I will build a great palace for myself.
    It will have large rooms upstairs.”
He puts windows in its walls.
    He covers the walls with cedar wood.
    He uses red paint to make it beautiful.
¹⁵ Are you better than other kings
    because you use more cedar wood to build your palace?
Think about how your father lived.
    He did what was right and fair.
    He had enough to eat and to drink.
So he was happy with a good life.
¹⁶ He did what was right
    for people who were poor and helpless.
So people were happy.
That is how people who know me should live.’

¹⁷ ‘But you always want to cheat people,
    so that you can get more riches for yourself.
You make plans to kill people who have not done anything wrong.
    You hurt people in cruel ways.’

‘People will not weep when he dies.
    They will not say, “I am very sad, my brother.
    I am very sad, my sister.”
They will not weep and say,
    “What a terrible thing has happened!
    Our great king has died!”
¹⁹ Instead, they will bury him like a dead donkey.
They will pull his dead body to the city's gate.
    They will throw it on the ground outside Jerusalem.’

²⁰ ‘Go up to Lebanon and cry aloud.^[d]
    Shout loudly in Bashan.
    Cry aloud from the mountains of Moab.
The nations that were your lovers
    have lost their power.
²¹ When you were feeling strong and safe,
    I warned you that this would happen.
But you said, “I refuse to listen to you.”
You have been like that since you were young.
    You have never obeyed me.
²² Your leaders will all disappear,
    as if a strong wind had blown them away.
Enemies will take your friends away as prisoners.
Then you will feel very ashamed,
    because of all the wicked things that you have done.
²³ You live safely in beautiful houses
    that are made from Lebanon's cedar wood.
But when I punish you, you will cry out with pain.
    You will feel pain like a woman who is having a baby.’

²⁸ This man Jeconiah will be like a broken pot.
    It is a clay pot that nobody wants any more.
He and his children will go as prisoners to a foreign country.
    They will live in a country that they do not know.
Why will that happen to them?
²⁹ Listen, people of this land! Listen, people of Judah!
    Listen to the Lord's message!

‘Write this man's name on the list.
    Write it as the name of a man who has no children.^[e]
    He will not have success in his life.
None of his sons will rule as a descendant of King David.
    None of them will be king of Judah.’