Jeremiah 22:13-30

Good News Translation

¹³ Doomed is the one who builds his house by injustice
    and enlarges it by dishonesty;
who makes his people work for nothing
    and does not pay their wages.
¹⁴ Doomed is the one who says,
    “I will build myself a mansion
    with spacious rooms upstairs.”
So he puts windows in his house,
    panels it with cedar,
    and paints it red.
¹⁵ Does it make you a better king
    if you build houses of cedar,
    finer than those of others?
Your father enjoyed a full life.
    He was always just and fair,
    and he prospered in everything he did.
¹⁶ He gave the poor a fair trial,
    and all went well with him.
That is what it means to know the Lord.
¹⁷ But you can only see your selfish interests;
    you kill the innocent
    and violently oppress your people.
The Lord has spoken.

“No one will mourn his death or say,
    ‘How terrible, my friend, how terrible!’
No one will weep for him or cry,
    ‘My lord! My king!’
¹⁹ With the funeral honors of a donkey,
    he will be dragged away
    and thrown outside Jerusalem's gates.”

²⁰ People of Jerusalem, go to Lebanon and shout,
    go to the land of Bashan and cry;
call out from the mountains of Moab,
    because all your allies have been defeated.
²¹ The Lord spoke to you when you were prosperous,
    but you refused to listen.
That is what you've done all your life;
    you never would obey the Lord.
²² Your leaders will be blown away by the wind,
    your allies taken as prisoners of war,
    your city disgraced and put to shame
    because of all the evil you have done.
²³ You rest secure among the cedars brought from Lebanon;
    but how pitiful you'll be when pains strike you,
    pains like those of a woman in labor.

²⁹ O land, land, land!
    Listen to what the Lord has said:
³⁰ “This man is condemned to lose his children,
    to be a man who will never succeed.
He will have no descendants
    who will rule in Judah
    as David's successors.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”