22Jeremiah 22

Jeremiah's Message to the Royal House of Judah

2The Lord told me to go to the palace of the king of Judah, the descendant of David, and there tell the king, his officials, and the people of Jerusalem to listen to what the Lord had said:Select Jeremiah 22:2

3“I, the Lord, command you to do what is just and right. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. Do not mistreat or oppress aliens, orphans, or widows; and do not kill innocent people in this holy place.Select Jeremiah 22:3

4If you really do as I have commanded, then David's descendants will continue to be kings. And they, together with their officials and their people, will continue to pass through the gates of this palace in chariots and on horses.Select Jeremiah 22:4

5But if you do not obey my commands, then I swear to you that this palace will fall into ruins. I, the Lord, have spoken.Select Jeremiah 22:5

6“To me, Judah's royal palace is as beautiful as the land of Gilead and as the Lebanon Mountains; but I will make it a desolate place where no one lives.Select Jeremiah 22:6

7I am sending men to destroy it. They will all bring their axes, cut down its beautiful cedar pillars, and throw them into the fire.Select Jeremiah 22:7

8“Afterward many foreigners will pass by and ask one another why I, the Lord, have done such a thing to this great city.Select Jeremiah 22:8

9Then they will answer that it is because you have abandoned your covenant with me, your God, and have worshiped and served other gods.”Select Jeremiah 22:9

Jeremiah's Message concerning Joahaz

10People of Judah, do not weep for King Josiah; do not mourn his death. But weep bitterly for Joahaz, his son; they are taking him away, never to return, never again to see the land where he was born.Select Jeremiah 22:10

11The Lord says concerning Josiah's son Joahaz, who succeeded his father as king of Judah, “He has gone away from here, never to return.Select Jeremiah 22:11

12He will die in the country where they have taken him, and he will never again see this land.”Select Jeremiah 22:12

Jeremiah's Message concerning Jehoiakim

13Doomed is the one who builds his house by injustice and enlarges it by dishonesty; who makes his people work for nothing and does not pay their wages.Select Jeremiah 22:13

14Doomed is the one who says, “I will build myself a mansion with spacious rooms upstairs.” So he puts windows in his house, panels it with cedar, and paints it red.Select Jeremiah 22:14

15Does it make you a better king if you build houses of cedar, finer than those of others? Your father enjoyed a full life. He was always just and fair, and he prospered in everything he did.Select Jeremiah 22:15

16He gave the poor a fair trial, and all went well with him. That is what it means to know the Lord.Select Jeremiah 22:16

17But you can only see your selfish interests; you kill the innocent and violently oppress your people. The Lord has spoken.Select Jeremiah 22:17

18So then, the Lord says about Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, “No one will mourn his death or say, ‘How terrible, my friend, how terrible!’ No one will weep for him or cry, ‘My lord! My king!’Select Jeremiah 22:18

19With the funeral honors of a donkey, he will be dragged away and thrown outside Jerusalem's gates.”Select Jeremiah 22:19

Jeremiah's Message about the Fate of Jerusalem

20People of Jerusalem, go to Lebanon and shout, go to the land of Bashan and cry; call out from the mountains of Moab, because all your allies have been defeated.Select Jeremiah 22:20

21The Lord spoke to you when you were prosperous, but you refused to listen. That is what you've done all your life; you never would obey the Lord.Select Jeremiah 22:21

22Your leaders will be blown away by the wind, your allies taken as prisoners of war, your city disgraced and put to shame because of all the evil you have done.Select Jeremiah 22:22

23You rest secure among the cedars brought from Lebanon; but how pitiful you'll be when pains strike you, pains like those of a woman in labor.Select Jeremiah 22:23

God's Judgment on Jehoiachin

24The Lord said to King Jehoiachin, son of King Jehoiakim of Judah, “As surely as I am the living God, even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you offSelect Jeremiah 22:24

25and give you to people you are afraid of, people who want to kill you. I will give you to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his soldiers.Select Jeremiah 22:25

26I am going to force you and your mother into exile. You will go to a country where neither of you was born, and both of you will die there.Select Jeremiah 22:26

27You will long to see this country again, but you will never return.”Select Jeremiah 22:27

28I said, “Has King Jehoiachin become like a broken jar that is thrown away and that no one wants? Is that why he and his children have been taken into exile to a land they know nothing about?”Select Jeremiah 22:28

29O land, land, land! Listen to what the Lord has said:Select Jeremiah 22:29

30“This man is condemned to lose his children, to be a man who will never succeed. He will have no descendants who will rule in Judah as David's successors. I, the Lord, have spoken.”Select Jeremiah 22:30