Jeremiah 22:1-17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Exhortation to Repent
22 Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,(A) 2 and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah sitting on the throne of David—you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates.(B) 3 Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.(C) 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then through the gates of this house shall enter kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses—they, their servants, and their people. 5 But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.(D) 6 For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:
You are like Gilead to me,
like the summit of Lebanon,
but I swear that I will make you a desert,
uninhabited cities.(E)
7 I will prepare destroyers against you,
all with their weapons;
they shall cut down your choicest cedars
and cast them into the fire.(F)
8 And many nations will pass by this city, and all of them will say one to another, “Why has the Lord dealt in this way with that great city?”(G) 9 And they will answer, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”(H)
10 Do not weep for him who is dead,
nor bemoan him;
weep rather for him who goes away,
for he shall return no more
to see his native land.(I)
Message to the Sons of Josiah
11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum son of King Josiah of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah and who went away from this place: He shall return here no more, 12 but in the place where they have carried him captive he shall die, and he shall never see this land again.
13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness
and his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his neighbors work for nothing
and does not give them their wages,(J)
14 who says, “I will build myself a spacious house
with large upper rooms,”
and who cuts out windows[a] for it,
paneling it with cedar
and painting it with vermilion.(K)
15 Are you a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.(L)
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
says the Lord.(M)
17 But your eyes and heart
are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence.(N)
Footnotes
- 22.14 Gk Vg Syr Tg: MT my windows
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.