Jeremiah 22

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Yahweh said this, 'Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there say this word,	1 Thus says the Lord: “Descend to the house of the king of Judah, and there you shall 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 you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits upon the throne of David: you and your servants, and your people, who enter through 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 says the Lord: Exercise judgment and justice, and free anyone who is oppressed by violence from the hand of a false accuser. And do not be willing to sadden the new arrival, or the orphan, or the widow, nor should you burden them unfairly. And you shall not shed 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 indeed accomplish this word, then there will enter through the gates of this house kings from the stock of David, sitting on his throne, and riding on 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 listen to these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house will be in 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 says the Lord about the house of the king of Judah: You are to me like Gilead, the head of Lebanon. Certainly, I will make you desolate, with uninhabitable cities.
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 sanctify over you the destroying man and his weapons. And they will cut down your select cedars and throw them violently 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 will pass through this city. And each one will say to his neighbor: ‘Why has the Lord acted in this way toward 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 will answer: ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, and they 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 You should not choose to weep for the dead, nor should you mourn over them with tears. Lament for him who is departing, for he will return no more, nor will he see his native land again.
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 says the Lord to Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father, who has departed from this place: He will not return here again.
12 but wil die in the place to which he has been taken captive; and he wil never see this country again.	12 Instead, he will die in the place to which I have transferred him, and he will not see this land anymore.
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 one who builds his house with injustice and his upper rooms without judgment, who oppresses his friend without cause and does 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 And he says: ‘I will build a broad house for myself, with spacious upper rooms.’ He makes windows for himself, and he builds the roof out of cedar, and he paints it with red ocher.
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 Will you reign because you compare yourself to the cedar? Did your father not eat and drink, and act with judgment and justice, so that it would be 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 case of the poor and the indigent for their good. Was this not because he knew me, says 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 Yet truly, your eyes and your heart are toward avarice and the shedding of innocent blood, and toward false accusations and the pursuit of evil deeds.
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 Because of this, thus says the Lord toward Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will not mourn for him by saying, ‘Alas,’ to a brother, or, ‘Alas,’ to a sister. They will not make a noise for him and say, ‘Alas,’ to a master, or, ‘Alas,’ to a nobleman.
19 He wil have a donkey's funeral -- dragged away and thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem.'	19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, having rotted and been thrown out of 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 Ascend to Lebanon and cry out! And utter your voice in Bashan, and cry out to those passing by. For all your lovers have been crushed.
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 you in your abundance, and you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, for you have not listened to 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 will feed all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. And then you will be confounded, and you will be ashamed of all your 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 You who sit in Lebanon, and who nest in the cedars, in what way did you mourn when suffering came to you, like the suffering of a woman giving birth?
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, says the Lord, if Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a ring on my right hand, I would remove him from there.
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 deliver you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you dread, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the 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 you, and your mother who conceived you, into a foreign land, 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 to the land about which they lift up their mind, thinking to return there, they shall not return.
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, Jeconiah, a broken earthenware vessel? Is he a vessel which is entirely unpleasing? Why have they been cast out, he and his offspring, cast out even into a land that they have not known?
29 O land, land, land, listen to the word of Yahweh!	29 O earth, O earth, O earth! Listen to 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 says the Lord: Write: this man is barren; he is a man who will not prosper in his days. For there will not be a man from among his offspring who will sit upon the throne of David, or have authority in Judah, anymore.”