O Land, Hear Yahweh

1Thus says Yahweh, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there you shall speak this word 2and say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. 3Thus says Yahweh, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the sojourner, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you men will indeed do this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting for David on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people. 5But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself,” declares Yahweh, “that this house will become a waste place.”’” 6For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah:

“You are like Gilead to Me,

Like the summit of Lebanon;

Yet most assuredly I will make you like a wilderness,

Like cities which are not inhabited.

7For I will set apart destroyers against you,

Each with his weapons;

And they will cut down your choicest cedars

And throw them on the fire.

8“Many nations will pass by this city; and they will say to one another, ‘Why has Yahweh done thus to this great city?’ 9Then they will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh their God and worshiped other gods and served them.’”

10Do not weep for the dead or console him,

But weep continually for the one who goes away,

For he will never return

Or see the land of his birth.

11For thus says Yahweh in regard to [†]Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place, “He will never return there; 12but in the place where they took him away into exile, there he will die and not see this land again.

13“Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness

And his [†]upper rooms without justice,

Who uses his neighbor’s services without pay

And does not give him his wages,

14Who says, ‘I will build myself a roomy house

With spacious [†]upper rooms

And cut out its windows,

[†]Paneling it with cedar and painting it [†]bright red.’

15Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar?

Did not your father eat and drink

And do justice and righteousness?

Then it was well with him.

16He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy;

Then it was well.

Is not that what it means to know Me?”

Declares Yahweh.

17“But your eyes and your heart

Are set on nothing except your own greedy gain

And on shedding innocent blood

And on doing oppression and extortion.”

18Therefore thus says Yahweh in regard to Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,

“They will not lament for him:

‘Alas, my brother!’ or, ‘Alas, sister!’

They will not lament for him:

‘Alas for the master!’ or, ‘Alas for his splendor!’

19He will be buried with a donkey’s burial,

Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

20Go up to Lebanon and cry out,

And lift up your voice in Bashan;

Cry out also from Abarim,

For all your lovers have been broken.

21I spoke to you in your prosperity,

But you said, ‘I will not listen!’

This has been your way from your youth,

That you have not listened to My voice.

22The wind will sweep away all your shepherds,

And your lovers will go into captivity;

Then you will surely be ashamed and feel dishonor

Because of all your evil.

23You who inhabit Lebanon,

Nested in the cedars,

How you will groan when pangs come upon you,

Pain like a woman in childbirth!

24“As I live,” declares Yahweh, “even though [†]Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull [†]you [†]off; 25and I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, indeed, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another land—there you were not born, but there you will die. 27But as for the land to which their soul desires to return, they will not return to it.

28Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar?

Or is he an undesirable vessel?

Why have he and his seed been hurled out

And cast into a land that they had not known?

29O land, land, land,

Hear the word of Yahweh!

30Thus says Yahweh,

‘Write this man down childless,

A man who will not succeed in his days;

For no man of his seed will succeed

Sitting on the throne of David

Or ruling again in Judah.’”