1Thus said Yehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2and say, Hear the word of Yehovah, O king of Judah, who sits upon the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates. 3Thus says Yehovah: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you do this thing indeed, then there shall enter in 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. 5But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says Yehovah, that this house shall become a desolation. 6For thus says Yehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, and the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited. 7And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. 8And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Why has Yehovah done this to this great city? 9Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Yehovah their God, and bowed down to other gods, and served them. 10Do not weep for the dead, nor bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. 11For thus says Yehovah concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went out of this place: He shall not return there any more; 12but in the place where they have led him captive, there he shall die, and he shall see this land no more. 13Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; who uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and does not give him his hire; 14who says, I will build myself a wide house and spacious chambers, and cuts out windows for it; and it is paneled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. 15Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? then it was well with him. 16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this to know me? says Yehovah. 17But your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it. 18Therefore thus says Yehovah 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! 19He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem. 20Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed. 21I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you did not obey my voice. 22The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then you shall be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness. 23O inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you shall be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in labor! 24As I live, says Yehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet I would pluck you from there; 25and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26And I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there you shall die. 27But to the land to which their soul longs to return, there they shall not return. 28Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a vessel in which no one delights? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and cast into the land which they do not know? 29O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Yehovah. 30Thus says Yehovah, Write this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.