A Warning to Judah’s Kings

1Thus sayde the LORDE also: Go downe in to the house of the kinge off Iuda, and speake there these wordes, 2& saye: Heare the worde off the LORDE, thou kinge off Iuda that syttest in the kyngly seate off Dauid: thou and thy seruauntes ad ye people, that go in & out at this gate. 3Thus the LORDE commaundeth: kepe equite and rightuousnesse, delyuer the oppressed fro the power off the violent: do not greue ner oppresse the straunger, the fatherlesse ner the wyddowe, ad shed no innocet bloude in this place. 4And yff ye kepe these thinges faithfully, then shall there come in at the dore off this house kynges, to syt vpo Dauids seate: they shal be caried in Charettes and ryde vpon horses, both they & their seruauntes, ad their people. 5But yf ye wil not be obedient vnto these commaundementes, I sweare by myne owne self (saieth ye LORDE) this house shalbe waist.

A Warning about the Palace

6For thus hath the LORDE spoken vpon the kinges house of Iuda: Thou art the heade, as Galaad is in Libanus: What wilt thou laye of it, yf I make the not so waist (& thy cities also) that no man shal dwell there in?

7I will prepare a destroyer with his weapes for the, to hew downe thy special Cedre trees, and to cast them in the fyre.

8And all the people that go by this cite, shall speake one to another: Wherfore hath the LORDE done thus vnto this noble cite? 9Then shall it be answered: because they haue broken the couenaunt off the LORDE their God, and haue worshipped and serued strauge goddes.

A Warning about Shallum

10Mourne not ouer the deed, and be not wo for them, but be sory for him that departeth awaye: for he commeth not agayne, ad seeth his natyue countre no more.

11For thus saieth the LORDE, as touchinge Sellum the sonne of Iosias kinge of Iuda, which reygned after his father, and is caried out off this place: He shal neuer come hither agayne, 12for he shal dye in the place, where vnto he is led captyue, and shall se this londe nomore.

A Warning about Jehoiakim

13Wo worth him, that buyldeth his house with vnrightuousnes, ad his perlers with the good, that he hath gotten by violence: which neuer recompenseth his neghburs laboure, ner payeth him his hyre.

14He thinketh in himself: I wil buylde me a wyde house, ad gorgeous perlers: He causeth wyndowes to be hewen there in, and the sylinges and geastes maketh he off Cedre, and paynteth them with Zenober.

15Thinkest thou to reigne, now that thou prouokest me to wrath with yi Cedre trees? Dyd not thy father eate and drynke, and prospere well, as loge as he dealt with equite ad rightuousnesse?

16Yee when he helped ye oppressed and poore to their right, then prospered he well. From whence came this, but only because he had me before his eyes? saieth the LORDE.

17Neuertheles, as for thine eyes and thine herte, they loke vpon covetousnesse, to shed innocent bloude, to do wronge and violence.

18And therfore, thus saieth the LORDE agaynst Ioachim, ye sonne of Iosias kynge of Iuda: They shall not mourne for him (as they vse to do) alas brother, alas syster: Nether shall they saye vnto him: Alas syr, alas for that noble prynce.

19But as an Asse shall he be buried, corrupte and be cast without the gates of Ierusalem.

20Clymme vp the hill off Libanus (o thou doughter Sion) lift vp thy voyce vpon Basan, crie from all partes: for all thy louers are destroyed.

21I gaue the warninge, whyle thou wast yet i prosperite, But thou saydest: I wil not heare. And this maner hast thou vsed from thy youth, that thou woldest neuer heare my voyce.

22All thy hyrdmen shalbe dryuen with the wynde, and thy derlinges shalbe caried awaye in to captiuyte: Then shalt thou be brought to shame and confucion, because of all thy wickednes:

23thou that dwellest vpon Libanus, ad makest thy nest in the Cedre trees. O how greate shal yi mournynge be, when thy sorowes come vpon the, as a woman trauelinge with childe?

A Warning to Coniah

24As truly as I lyue (saieth the LORDE.) Though Iechonias the sonne off Ioachim kinge off Iuda were the signet off my right honde, yet will I plucke him of: 25And I wil geue the in to ye power off the that seke to slaye the, and in to the power off them that thou fearest: in to the power off Nabuchodonosor the kinge off Babilon, and in to the power of the Caldees. 26Morouer, I will sende the, and thy mother that bare the, in to a straunge londe, where ye were not borne, ad there shall ye dye. 27But as for the londe that ye will desyre to returne vnto, ye shall neuer come at it agayne.

28This ma Iechonias shalbe like an ymage robbed and torne in peces, which pleaseth no man, for all his apparell. Wherfore both he and his sede shalbe sent awaye, and cast out into a lode, that they knowe not.

29O thou earth, earth, earth: heare the worde off the LORDE:

30Wryte this man amonge the outlawes, for no prosperite shall this man haue all his life longe. Nether shall eny of his sede be so happie, as to syt vpon the seate of Dauid, and to beare rule in Iuda.