Jeremiah 22

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Yahweh said this, 'Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there say this word,	1 Thus saith the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Juda, and there thou shalt speak this word,
2 "Listen to the word of Yahweh, king of Judah now occupying the throne of David, you, your officials andyour people who go through these gates.	2 And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Juda, that sittest upon the throne of David: thou and thy servants, and thy people, who enter in by these gates.
3 Yahweh says this: Act uprightly and justly; rescue from the hands of the oppressor anyone who hasbeen wronged, do not exploit or il -treat the stranger, the orphan, the widow; shed no innocent blood in thisplace.	3 Thus saith the Lord: Execute judgement and justice, and deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor: and afflict not the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, nor oppress them unjustly: and shed not innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you are scrupulous in obeying this command, then kings occupying the throne of David willcontinue to make their entry through the gates of this palace riding in chariots or on horseback, they, theirofficials and their people.	4 For if you will do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house, kings of the race of David sitting upon his throne, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants, and their people.
5 But if you do not listen to these words, then I swear by myself, Yahweh declares, this palace shalbecome a ruin!	5 But if you will not hearken to these words: I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
6 "Yes, this is what Yahweh says about the palace of the king of Judah: You are like Gilead to me, like apeak of Lebanon. Al the same, I wil reduce you to a desert, to uninhabited towns.	6 For thus saith the Lord to the house of the king of Juda: Thou art to me Galaad the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities not habitable.
7 I dedicate men to destroy you, each man with his weapons; they will cut down your finest cedars andthrow them on the fire.	7 And I will prepare against thee the destroyer and his weapons: and they shall cut down thy chosen cedars, and shall cast them headlong into the fire.
8 "And when many nations pass this city, they wil say to one another: Why has Yahweh treated thisgreat city like this?	8 And many nations shall pass by this city: and they shall say every man to his neighbor: Why hath the Lord done so to this great city?
9 And the answer wil be: Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God to worship othergods and serve them." '	9 And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and have adored strange gods, and served them.
10 Do not weep for the man who is dead, do not raise the dirge for him. Weep rather for the one who hasgone away, since he wil never come back, never see his native land again.	10 Weep not for him that is dead, nor bemoan him with your tears: lament him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For this is what Yahweh has said about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded Josiahhis father and was forced to leave this place, 'He wil never come back to it	11 For thus saith the Lord to Sellum the son of Josias the king of Juda, who reigned instead of his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall return hither no more:
12 but wil die in the place to which he has been taken captive; and he wil never see this country again.	12 But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall he die, and he shall not see this land any more.
13 'Disaster for the man who builds his house without uprightness, his upstairs rooms without fairjudgement, who makes his fel ow-man work for nothing, without paying him his wages,	13 Woe to him that buildeth up his house by injustice, and his chambers not in judgement: that will oppress his friend without cause, and will not pay him his wages.
14 who says, "I shal build myself a spacious palace with airy upstairs rooms," who makes windows in it,panels it with cedar, and paints it vermilion.	14 Who saith: I will build me a wide house and large chambers: who openeth to himself windows, and maketh roofs of cedar, and painteth them with vermilion.
15 Are you more of a king because of your passion for cedar? Did your father go hungry or thirsty? Buthe did what is just and upright, so al went wel for him.	15 Shalt thou reign, because thou comparest thyself to the cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and it was then well with him?
16 He used to examine the cases of poor and needy, then al went wel . Is not that what it means to knowme? Yahweh demands.	16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good: was it not therefore because he knew me, saith the Lord?
17 You on the other hand have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocentblood and perpetrating violence and oppression.'	17 But thy eyes and thy heart are set upon covetousness, and upon shedding innocent blood, and upon oppression, and running after evil works.
18 That is why Yahweh says this about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: 'No lamenting for him,"My poor brother! My poor sister!" No lamenting for him, "His poor lordship! His poor majesty!"	18 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda: They shall not mourn for him, Alas, my brother, and Alas, sister: they shall not lament for him, Alas, my Lord, or, Alas, the noble one.
19 He wil have a donkey's funeral -- dragged away and thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem.'	19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem.
20 'Climb the Lebanon range and shriek, raise your voice in Bashan, shriek from the Abarim, for al yourlovers have been ruined!	20 Go up to Libanus, and cry: and lift up thy voice in Basan, and cry to them that pass by, for all thy lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, "I wil not listen!" From your youth this has been howyou behaved, refusing to listen to my voice.	21 I spoke to thee in thy properity: and thoiu saidst: I will not hear: this hath been thy way from thy youth, because thou hast not heard my voice.
22 The wind will shepherd al your shepherds away and your lovers wil go into captivity. Then you wilblush deep with shame at the thought of al your wickedness.	22 The wind shall feed all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: and then shalt thou be confounded, and ashamed of all thy wickedness.
23 You who have made the Lebanon your home and made your nest among the cedars, how you wilgroan when anguish overtakes you, pangs like those of a woman in labour!	23 Thou that sittest in Libanus, and makest thy nest in the cedars, how hast thou mourned when sorrows came upon thee, as the pains of a woman in labour?
24 'As I live, Yahweh declares, even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring onmy right hand, I would stil wrench you off!	24 As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him thence.
25 I shal hand you over to those determined to kill you, to those you dread, to Nebuchadnezzar king ofBabylon, to the Chaldaeans.	25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 I shal hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country; you were not born there but youwil both die there.	26 And I will send thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a strange country, in which you were not born, and there you shall die:
27 They wil not return to the country to which they desperately long to return.'	27 And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they lift up their mind to return thither.
28 Is he a shoddy broken pot, this man Coniah, a crock that no one wants? Why are he and his offspringejected, hurled into a country they know nothing of?	28 Is this man Jechonias an earthen and a broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein there is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
29 O land, land, land, listen to the word of Yahweh!	29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
30 Yahweh says this, 'List this man as: Childless; a man who made a failure of his life, since none of hisoffspring wil succeed in occupying the throne of David, or ruling in Judah again.'	30 Thus saith the Lord: Write this man barren, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that shall sit upon the throne of David, and have power any more in Juda.