Jeremiah 22:1-17

Judgment Against Wicked Kings 1This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: 2‘Hear the word of the LORD to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. 3This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people.

5But if you do not obey these commands, declares the LORD, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.’ ”

6For this is what the LORD says about the palace of the king of Judah: “Though you are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, I will surely make you like a wasteland, like towns not inhabited.

7I will send destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut up your fine cedar beams and throw them into the fire. 8“People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’

9And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’ ”

10Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss; rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled, because he will never return nor see his native land again. 11For this is what the LORD says about Shallum Also called Jehoahaz son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: “He will never return.

12He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again.”

13“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.

14He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’ So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red.

15“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.

16He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD .

17“But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion.”