1 Thus said Yahweh: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
2 And say, Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, that sit on the throne of David, you, and your slaves, and your people who enter in by these gates.
3 Thus says Yahweh: Execute{+} justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you{+} do this thing indeed, then there will enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his slaves, and his people.
5 But if you{+} will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says Yahweh, that this house will become a desolation.
6 For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I will make you a wilderness, [and] cities which are not inhabited.
7 And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons; and they will cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8 And many nations will pass by this city, and they will say every man to his fellow man, Why has Yahweh done thus to this great city?
9 Then they will answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.
10 Don't weep{+} for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep intensely for him who goes away; for he will return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For thus says Yahweh concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, [and] who went forth out of this place: He will not return there anymore.
12 But in the place where they have led him captive, there he will die, and he will see this land no more.
13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; who uses his fellow man's service without wages, and does not give him his wages;
14 who says, I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers, and cuts him out many windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
15 Will you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Wasn't this the knowledge of me? says Yahweh.
17 But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
18 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: they will not lament for him, [saying], Ah my brother! Or, Ah sister! They will not lament for him, [saying] Ah lord! Or, Ah his glory!
19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you didn't obey my voice.
22 The wind will shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity: surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that make your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in travail!
24 As I live, says Yahweh, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet I would pluck you from there;
25 and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 And I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country, where you{+} were not born; and there you{+} will die.
27 But to the land to where their soul longs to return, they will not return there.
28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which none delights? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they don't know?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Yahweh.
30 Thus says Yahweh, Write{+} this man childless, a [prominent] man who will not prosper in his days; for no more will a man of his seed prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.