The Father Calls Kings to Justice
22 1 This is what our Father says: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak this word there, 2 and say: Hear the word of our Father, O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David — you, and your servants, and your people who enter through these gates.
3 This is what our Father says: Do justice and righteousness, and rescue the one who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to foreigners, orphans, or widows, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will truly carry out this word, then through the gates of this house will come kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses — the king, his servants, and his people. 5 But if you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, declares our Father, that this house will become a ruin.
6 For this is what our Father says concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon — yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities no one inhabits. 7 I will set apart destroyers against you, each with his weapons; they will cut down your choicest cedars and throw them into the fire.
8 Many nations will pass by this city, and they will say to one another, "Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?" 9 And they will answer, "Because they abandoned the covenant of their Father and bowed down to other gods and served them."
The Father Speaks of Shallum
10 Do not weep for the dead or mourn for him; weep bitterly instead for the one who is going away, for he will never return to see the land of his birth.
11 For this is what our Father says about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of Josiah his father and who has left this place: He will never return here. 12 He will die in the place where they have led him captive, and he will see this land no more.
13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor work for nothing and does not give him his wages, 14 who says, "I will build myself a vast house with spacious upper rooms," and cuts out wide windows for it, panels it with cedar, and paints it bright red. 15 Do you reign because you outdo others with cedar? Your father ate and drank, yet he did justice and righteousness, and then it went well with him.
16 He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so it went well. Is this not what it means to know me? declares our Father. 17 But your eyes and your heart are set only on your dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, and on practicing oppression and violence.
18 Therefore this is what our Father says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will not mourn for him, saying, "Alas, my brother!" or "Alas, my sister!" They will not mourn for him, saying, "Alas, lord!" or "Alas, his majesty!" 19 He will be buried with a donkey's burial — dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are crushed. a a v20 Abarim is a mountain range east of the Jordan River, near the plains of Moab. 21 I spoke to you in your times of ease, but you said, "I will not listen." This has been your way since your youth — you have not obeyed my voice. 22 The wind will shepherd away all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity; then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness. 23 You who dwell in Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you will groan when labor pains come upon you, anguish like a woman giving birth!
24 As surely as I live, declares our Father, even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still tear you off. 25 I will hand you over to those who seek your life, to those you dread — to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Chaldeans. 26 I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another land, where neither of you was born, and there you will die. 27 As for the land they long to return to, they will never return there.
28 Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered pot, a vessel no one wants? Why are he and his children hurled out and cast into a land they do not know? 29 Land, land, land, hear the word of our Father!
30 This is what our Father says: Record this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime; for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule again in Judah.