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Exhortation to Repent

22 Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,(A) 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) 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) 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. But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.(D) 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)
I will prepare destroyers against you,
    all with their weapons;
they shall cut down your choicest cedars
    and cast them into the fire.(F)

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) And they will answer, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”(H)

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Instructions for the Kings of Judah

22 This is what the Lord says: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and tell him this: ‘Listen to this message from the Lord, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David—you, your officials,[a] and your people who enter these gates. This is what the Lord says: “Uphold justice and righteousness. Deliver from their oppressor those who have been robbed. Don’t mistreat or do violence to the alien, the orphan, or the widow, or shed the blood of innocent people in this place. Rather, carefully obey this message,[b] and then kings sitting for David on his throne and riding in chariots and on horses will enter the gates of this house. The king will enter along with his officials[c] and his people. But if you don’t listen to these words, I swear,” declares the Lord, “that this house will become a ruin.”’” For this is what the Lord says about the house of the king of Judah,

“You are like Gilead to me,
    like the summit of Lebanon.
Yet I’ll surely make you a desert,
    towns where no one lives.
I’ll appoint people to destroy you—
    men with their weapons.
They’ll cut down some of your choice cedars[d]
    and incinerate them.

“Many nations will pass by this city and say to one another, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this great city?’ Then people[e] will respond, ‘It is[f] because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have bowed down to other gods and served them.’

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 22:2 Or your servants
  2. Jeremiah 22:4 Or do this thing
  3. Jeremiah 22:4 Lit. house, he, his officials
  4. Jeremiah 22:7 I.e. a genus of coniferous evergreen in the family Pinaceae; and so throughout the book
  5. Jeremiah 22:9 Lit. they’ll say
  6. Jeremiah 22:9 The Heb. lacks It is