Jeremiah 22:13-19

The Voice

¹³     Woe to the one^[a] who builds his palace on the proceeds of unrighteousness,
        who adds upper rooms on the gains of injustice,
    Who forces his own people to labor for nothing,
        who refuses to pay them for all their hard work.
¹⁴     He thinks to himself, “I will build a huge palace
        with a large second story and many windows.
    I will panel the walls with the best cedar
        and paint it red to impress everyone.”
¹⁵     Do you become king because you have more cedar than another?
        Your father, so different from you, had plenty to eat, plenty to drink.
    Didn’t he live his life as a righteous and fair man?
        And look how well he did.
¹⁶     He stood up for the poor and needy;
        then things went well for him and the people.
    Isn’t this what it means to know Me?
¹⁷     But you are so different: your eyes are focused and your heart is set
        on one goal: deceitful personal gain.
    You make the innocent pay with their blood;
        you violently oppress them and take what is not yours.

¹⁸ So this is what the Eternal says
    regarding Jehoiakim (son of Josiah), king of Judah:

Eternal One: Upon his death, no one in his family will weep and say,
        “Oh my brother, oh my sister—our loved one is gone.”
    Nor will any of his subjects weep and say,
        “Our leader is gone; our great king is gone.”
¹⁹     No, he will be buried like a dead donkey—his body dragged away
        and dumped outside Jerusalem’s gates in the trash heap.