Jeremiah 22
English Standard Version
22 Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2 and say, (A)‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: (B)Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And (C)do no wrong or violence (D)to the resident alien, (E)the fatherless, and the widow, nor (F)shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, (G)then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I (H)swear by myself, declares the Lord, that (I)this house shall become a desolation. 6 For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:
“‘You are like Gilead to me,
like the summit of (J)Lebanon,
yet surely I will make you a desert,
(K)an uninhabited city.[a]
7 (L)I will prepare destroyers against you,
each with his weapons,
(M)and they shall cut down your choicest cedars
and cast them into the fire.
8 “‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, (N)“Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?” 9 (O)And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”’”
10 (P)Weep not for him who is dead,
nor grieve for him,
(Q)but weep bitterly for him who goes away,
for he shall return no more
to see his native land.
Message to the Sons of Josiah
11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and (R)who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, 12 but (S)in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.”
13 (T)“Woe to him who builds his house by (U)unrighteousness,
and his upper rooms by injustice,
(V)who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing
and does not give him his wages,
14 who says, ‘I will build myself a great house
with spacious upper rooms,’
who cuts out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar
and (W)painting it with vermilion.
15 Do you think you are a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and (X)do justice and righteousness?
(Y)Then it was well with him.
16 (Z)He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
(AA)then it was well.
Is not this (AB)to know me?
declares the Lord.
17 But you have eyes and heart
only for your dishonest gain,
(AC)for shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence.”
18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
(AD)“They shall not lament for him, saying,
(AE)‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’
They shall not lament for him, saying,
(AF)‘Ah, lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’
19 With the burial of a donkey (AG)he shall be buried,
dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
20 “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,
and lift up your voice in Bashan;
cry out from (AH)Abarim,
for all (AI)your lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to you in your prosperity,
but you said, ‘I will not listen.’
(AJ)This has been your way from (AK)your youth,
that you have not obeyed my voice.
22 (AL)The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,
and (AM)your lovers shall go into captivity;
(AN)then you will be ashamed and confounded
because of all your evil.
23 O inhabitant of (AO)Lebanon,
nested among the cedars,
how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,
(AP)pain as of a woman in labor!”
24 (AQ)“As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were (AR)the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off 25 and (AS)give you (AT)into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 (AU)I will hurl you and (AV)the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.”
28 Is this man (AW)Coniah a despised, broken pot,
a (AX)vessel no one cares for?
Why are he and his children hurled and cast
into a (AY)land that they do not know?
29 (AZ)O land, land, land,
hear the word of the Lord!
30 Thus says the Lord:
“Write this man down as (BA)childless,
a man who shall not succeed in his days,
(BB)for none of his offspring shall succeed
(BC)in sitting on the throne of David
and ruling again in Judah.”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 22:6 Hebrew cities
Jeremiah 22
New Living Translation
A Message for Judah’s Kings
22 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah. Say to him, 2 ‘Listen to this message from the Lord, you king of Judah, sitting on David’s throne. Let your attendants and your people listen, too. 3 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! 4 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. 5 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.’”
A Message about the Palace
6 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.
7 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.
8 “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?’ 9 And the answer will be, ‘Because they violated their covenant with the Lord their God by worshiping other gods.’”
A Message about Jehoahaz
10 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.
11 For this is what the Lord says about Jehoahaz,[a] who succeeded his father, King Josiah, and was taken away as a captive: “He will never return. 12 He will die in a distant land and will never again see his own country.”
A Message about Jehoiakim
13 And the Lord says, “What sorrow awaits Jehoiakim,[b]
who builds his palace with forced labor.[c]
He builds injustice into its walls,
for he makes his neighbors work for nothing.
He does not pay them for their labor.
14 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.’
15 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.
16 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.
17 “But you! You have eyes only for greed and dishonesty!
You murder the innocent,
oppress the poor, and reign ruthlessly.”
18 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!’
19 He will be buried like a dead donkey—
dragged out of Jerusalem and dumped outside the gates!
20 Weep for your allies in Lebanon.
Shout for them in Bashan.
Search for them in the regions east of the river.[d]
See, they are all destroyed.
Not one is left to help you.
21 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!
22 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.
23 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.
A Message for Jehoiachin
24 “As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “I will abandon you, Jehoiachin[e] son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off. 25 I will hand you over to those who seek to kill you, those you so desperately fear—to King Nebuchadnezzar[f] of Babylon and the mighty Babylonian[g] army. 26 I will expel you and your mother from this land, and you will die in a foreign country, not in your native land. 27 You will never again return to the land you yearn for.
28 “Why is this man Jehoiachin like a discarded, broken jar?
Why are he and his children to be exiled to a foreign land?
29 O earth, earth, earth!
Listen to this message from the Lord!
30 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.’
Footnotes
- 22:11 Hebrew Shallum, another name for Jehoahaz.
- 22:13a The brother and successor of the exiled Jehoahaz. See 22:18.
- 22:13b Hebrew by unrighteousness.
- 22:20 Or in Abarim.
- 22:24 Hebrew Coniah, a variant spelling of Jehoiachin; also in 22:28.
- 22:25a Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar.
- 22:25b Or Chaldean.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
