1Thus hath the LORD said: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2and say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that doth sit upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants and thy people that enter in by these gates: 3Thus hath the LORD said: Execute judgment and righteousness and deliver the oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor and do not deceive neither steal from the stranger nor from the fatherless nor from the widow neither shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if ye effectively obey this word, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house the kings seated by David upon his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people. 5But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, said the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. 6For thus hath the LORD said regarding the house of the king of Judah: Thou [art] Gilead unto me [and] the head of Lebanon: [yet] surely I will make thee a wilderness [and] cities [which] are not inhabited. 7And I will appoint destroyers against thee, each one with his weapons, and they shall cut down thy choice cedars and cast [them] into the fire. 8And many Gentiles shall pass by this city, and each man shall say to his neighbour, Why has the LORD done thus unto this great city? 9Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshipped other gods and served them. 10Do not weep for the dead nor bemoan him, [but] weep sore for him that goes away, for he shall return no more nor see his native country. 11For thus hath the LORD said of Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, He who went forth out of this place shall not return there any more; 12but he shall die in the place where they have led him captive and shall see this land no more. 13Woe unto him that builds his house and not in righteousness and his chambers and not in judgment, using his neighbour's service without wages and not giving him [the wages of] his work! 14That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cuts out windows [in] it and covers it with cedar and anoints it with vermilion. 15Shalt thou reign, because thou dost enclose [thyself] in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink and do judgment and righteousness, [and] then [it was] well with him? 16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then [it was] well [with him]. Is this not to know me? said the LORD. 17But thine eyes and thine heart [are] not but for thy covetousness and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence, to do [it]. 18Therefore thus hath the LORD said concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah my brother! and Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! 19He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. 20Go up to Lebanon and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan and cry unto all parts: for all thy lovers are destroyed. 21I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity, [but] thou didst say, I will not hear. This [has been] thy way from thy youth, that thou hast never heard my voice. 22The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confound thyself because of all thy malice. 23Thou didst inhabit Lebanon, thou didst make thy nest in the cedars. How shalt thou cry out when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail! 24[As] I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet I would pluck thee from there; 25and I will give thee into the hand of those that seek thy soul and into the hand [of those] whose face thou dost fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26And I will cast thee out and thy mother that bore thee into another country, where ye were not born, and there ye shall die. 27But to the land unto which they desire to return, they shall not return there. 28[Is] this man Coniah a despised broken idol? [Is he] a vessel in which [there is] no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his generation, and are cast into a land which they know not? 29O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. 30Thus hath the LORD said, Write [what shall be] of this man deprived of [a] generation, a man unto whom nothing shall prosper in all the days of his life, for no man of his seed who sits upon the throne of David and rules over Judah shall prosper.: