¶ Thus said the LORD also: Go down in to the house of the king of Iudah, and speak there these words,
and say: Hear the word of the LORD, thou king of Iudah that sittest in the kingly seat of David: thou, and thy servants, and thy people, that go in and out at this gate.
Thus the LORD commandeth: Keep equity and righteousness, deliver the oppressed from the power of the violent: do not grieve nor oppress the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, and shed no innocent blood in this place.
And if ye keep these things faithfully, then shall there come in at the door of this house kings, to sit upon David's seat: they shall be carried in Chariots and ride upon horses, both they and their servants, and their people.
But if ye will not be obedient unto these commandments, I swear by mine own self (sayeth the LORD) this house shall be waste.
For thus hath the LORD spoken upon the king's house of Iudah: Thou art the head, as Gilead is in Libanus: What wilt thou lay of it, if I make thee not so waste (and thy cities also) that no man shall dwell therein?
I will prepare a destroyer with his weapons for thee, to hew down thy special Cedar trees, and to cast them in the fire.
And all the people that go by this city, shall speak one to another: Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this noble city?
Then shall it be answered: because they have broken the covenant of the LORD their God, and have worshipped and served strange gods.
¶ Mourn not over the dead, and be not woe for them, but be sorry for him that departeth away: for he cometh not again, and seeth his native country no more.
For thus sayeth the LORD, as touching Selum the son of Iosiah king of Iudah, which reigned after his father, and is carried out of this place: He shall never come hither again,
for he shall die in the place, where unto he is led captive, and shall see this land no more.
Woe worth him, that buildeth his house with unrighteousness, and his parlors with the good that he hath gotten by violence: which never recompenceth his neighbour's labour, nor payeth him his hire.
He thinketh in himself: I will build me a wide house, and gorgeous parlors: He causeth windows to be hewn therein, and the ceilings and joists maketh he of Cedar, and painteth them with Zenober.
Thinkest thou to reign, now that thou provokest me to wrath with the Cedar trees? Did not thy father eat and drink, and prosper well, as long as he dealt with equity and righteousness?
Yea when he helped the oppressed and poor to their right, then prospered he well. From whence came this, but only because he had me before his eyes, sayeth the LORD.
Nevertheless, as for thine eyes and thine heart, they look upon covetousness, to shed innocent blood, and to do wrong and violence.
And therefore, thus sayeth the LORD against Iehoakim, the son of Iosiah king of Iudah: They shall not mourn for him (as they use to do) alas brother, alas sister: Neither shall they say unto him: Alas sir, alas for that noble prince.
But as an Ass shall he be buried, corrupt and be cast without the gates of Ierusalem.
¶ Climb up the hill of Libanus (O thou daughter Sion) lift up thy voice upon Basan, cry from all parts: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
I gave thee warning, while thou wast yet in prosperity. But thou saidst: I will not hear. And this manner hast thou used from thy youth, that thou wouldest never hear my voice.
All thy herdmen shall be driven with the wind, and thy dearlings shall be carried away into captivity: Then shalt thou be brought to shame and confusion, because of all thy wickedness:
thou that dwellest upon Libanus, and makest thy nest in the Cedars trees. O how great shall thy mourning be, when thy sorrows come upon thee, as a woman travailing with child?
As truly as I live (sayeth the LORD) Though Iechoniah the son of Iehoakim king of Iudah were the signet of my right hand, yet will I pluck him off:
And I will give thee into the power of them that seek to slay thee, and into the power of them that thou fearest: into the power of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and into the power of the Caldees.
Moreover, I will send thee, and thy mother that bare thee, into a strange land, where ye were not born, and there shall ye die.
But as for the land that ye will desire to return unto, ye shall never come at it again.
This man Iechoniah shall be like an image robbed and torn in pieces, which pleaseth no man, for all his apparel. Wherefore both he and his seed shall be sent away, and cast out into a land, that they know not.
O thou earth, earth, earth: hear the word of the LORD.
Write this man among the outlaws, for no prosperity shall this man have all his life long. Neither shall any of his seed be so happy, as to sit upon the seat of David, and to bear rule in Iuda.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.