Jeremiah 22:1-9 ▼

1 THUS says the LORD: GO down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, and say,

2 Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter by these gates;

3 Thus says the LORD: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor; and do no wrong, do no violence to the strangers, the fatherless, and the widows, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

4 For if you will do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David and princes who ride in chariots and on horses, a king and his servants and his people.

5 But if you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.

6 For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are like Gilead, like the head of Lebanon; but I will surely make you a desert, like an uninhabited city.

7 And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his axe in his hand; and they shall cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire.

8 And many people shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?

9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshipped other gods and served them.