11And unto the house of the king of Judah: Hear ye the word of the Lord; 12O house of David, thus saith the Lord:
Execute justice in the morning,And deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor,Lest My fury go forth like fire,And burn that none can quench it,Because of the evil of your doings.
13Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley,And rock of the plain, saith the Lord;Ye that say: 'Who shall come down against us?Or who shall enter into our habitations?'14And I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,Saith the Lord;And I will kindle a fire in her forest,And it shall devour all that is round about her.
22Thus said the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates. 3Thus saith the Lord:
Execute ye justice and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor; and do no wrong, do no violence, to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. 5But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by Myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. 6For thus saith the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:
Thou art Gilead unto Me,The head of Lebanon;Yet surely I will make thee a wilderness,Cities which are not inhabited.7And I will prepare destroyers against thee,Every one with his weapons;And they shall cut down thy choice cedars,And cast them into the fire.
8And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour: 'Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city?' 9Then they shall answer: 'Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.'
10Weep ye not for the dead,Neither bemoan him;But weep sore for him that goeth away,For he shall return no more,Nor see his native country.
11For thus saith the Lord touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went forth out of this place: He shall not return thither any more; 12but in the place whither they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more.
13Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness,And his chambers by injustice;That useth his neighbour's service without wages,And giveth him not his hire;14That saith: 'I will build me a wide houseAnd spacious chambers',And cutteth him out windows,And it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.15Shalt thou reign, because thou strivest to excel in cedar?Did not thy father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness?Then it was well with him.16He judged the cause of the poor and needy;Then it was well.Is not this to know Me? saith the Lord.17But thine eyes and thy heartAre not but for thy covetousness,And for shedding innocent blood,And for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
18Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
They shall not lament for him:'Ah my brother! ' or: 'Ah sister! 'They shall not lament for him:'Ah lord! ' or: 'Ah his glory! '19He shall be buried with the burial of an ass,Drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. 20Go up to Lebanon, and cry,And lift up thy voice in Bashan;And cry from Abarim,For all thy lovers are destroyed.21I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity,But thou saidst: 'I will not hear.'This hath been thy manner from thy youth,That thou hearkenedst not to My voice.22The wind shall feed upon all thy shepherds,And thy lovers shall go into captivity;Surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confoundedFor all thy wickedness.23O inhabitant of Lebanon,That art nestled in the cedars,How gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee,The pain as of a woman in travail!
24As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon My right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; 25and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them of whom thou art afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bore thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. 27But to the land whereunto they long to return, thither shall they not return.
28Is this man Coniah a despised, broken image?Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure?Wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed,
And are cast into the land which they know not?
29O land, land, land,Hear the word of the Lord.30Thus saith the Lord:Write ye this man childless,A man that shall not prosper in his days;For no man of his seed shall prosper,Sitting upon the throne of David,And ruling any more in Judah. 23Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatterThe sheep of My pasture! saith the Lord.
2Therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, against the shepherds that feed My people: Ye have scattered My flock, and driven them away, and have not taken care of them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. 3And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4And I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, saith the Lord.
5Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,That I will raise unto David a righteous shoot,And he shall reign as king and prosper,And shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.6In his days Judah shall be saved,And Israel shall dwell safely;And this is his name whereby he shall be called,The Lord is our righteousness.
7Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say: 'As the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt'; 8but: 'As the Lord liveth, that brought up and that led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them'; and they shall dwell in their own land.
9Concerning the prophets.
My heart within me is broken,All my bones shake;I am like a drunken man,And like a man whom wine hath overcome;Because of the Lord,And because of His holy words.10For the land is full of adulterers;For because of swearing the land mourneth,The pastures of the wilderness are dried up;And their course is evil,And their force is not right.11For both prophet and priest are ungodly;Yea, in My house have I found their wickedness,Saith the Lord.12Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness,They shall be thrust, and fall therein;For I will bring evil upon them,Even the year of their visitation,Saith the Lord. 13And I have seen unseemliness in the prophets of Samaria:They prophesied by Baal,And caused My people Israel to err.14But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:They commit adultery, and walk in lies,And they strengthen the hands of evil-doers,That none doth return from his wickedness;They are all of them become unto Me as Sodom,And the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
15Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,And make them drink the water of gall;For from the prophets of JerusalemIs ungodliness gone forth into all the land.
16Thus saith the Lord of hosts:Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you,They lead you unto vanity;They speak a vision of their own heart,And not out of the mouth of the Lord.17They say continually unto them that despise Me:'The Lord hath said: Ye shall have peace';And unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his own heart they say:'No evil shall come upon you';18For who hath stood in the council of the Lord,That he should perceive and hear His