22:1 Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of
Judah, and speak there this word,
22:2 And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that
sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and
thy people that enter by these gates:
22:3 Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness,
and deliver him that is laid waste out of the hand of the
oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the
fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this
place.
22:4 For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter, by
the gates of this house, kings sitting upon the throne of
David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants,
and his people.
22:5 But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself,
saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
22:6 For thus saith the LORD to the king's house of Judah; Thou
[art] Gilead to me, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I
will make thee a wilderness, [and] cities [which] are not
inhabited.
22:7 And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with
his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and
cast [them] into the fire.
22:8 And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall
say every man to his neighbor, Why hath the LORD done thus to
this great city?
22:9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the
covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other gods, and
served them.
22:10 Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: [but] weep
bitterly for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more,
nor see his native country.
22:11 For thus saith the LORD concerning Shallum the son of
Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father,
who went forth from this place; He shall not return thither any
more:
22:12 But he shall die in the place whither they have led him
captive, and shall see this land no more.
22:13 Woe to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and
his chambers by wrong; [that] useth his neighbor's service
without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
22:14 That saith, I will build me a wide house and large
chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and [it is] ceiled with
cedar, and painted with vermilion.
22:15 Shalt thou reign, because thou closest [thyself] in cedar?
did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice,
[and] then [it was] well with him?
22:16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then [it was]
well [with him]: [was] not this to know me? saith the LORD.
22:17 But thy eyes and thy heart [are] only for thy
covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for
oppression, and for violence, to do [it].
22:18 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him,
[saying], Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament
for him, [saying], Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
22:19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and
cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
22:20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in
Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are
destroyed.
22:21 I spoke to thee in thy prosperity; [but] thou saidest, I
will not hear. This [hath been] thy manner from thy youth, that
thou hast not obeyed my voice.
22:22 The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers
shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and
confounded for all thy wickedness.
22:23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the
cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee,
the pain as of a woman in travail!
22:24 [As] I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of
Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet
would I pluck thee thence;
22:25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy
life, and into the hand [of them] whose face thou fearest, even
into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the
hand of the Chaldeans.
22:26 And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bore thee,
into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall
ye die.
22:27 But to the land to which they desire to return, thither
shall they not return.
22:28 [Is] this man Coniah a despised broken idol? [is he] a
vessel in which [is] no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and
his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
22:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
22:30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man
[that] shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed
shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any
more in Judah.
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