Jeremiah 22
Weep Not for the Dead, but for Him Who Goes Away
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Go Down to the House of Judah’s King
22:1Thus says the Lord: Go and descend to the house of Judah’s king and speak this word there,
22:2and say: Hear the Lord’s word, king of Judah who sits on David’s throne—you, your household, your people, and those entering these gates.
22:3Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness; rescue the plundered from the hand of the one wronging him. Do not oppress the newcomer, orphan, or widow, and do not act impiously or shed innocent blood in this place.
22:4Because if you truly carry out this word, kings sitting upon David’s throne and riding chariots and horses will enter this house’s gates—they, their servants, and their people.
22:5But if you do not carry out these words, I swear by Myself, says the Lord, that this house will become a desolation.
22:6Because thus says the Lord against the house of Judah’s king: You are Gilead to Me, the head of Lebanon; surely I will make you a wilderness, cities that will not be inhabited.
22:7And I will bring against you a destroying man and his axe, and they will cut down your chosen cedars and cast them into the fire.
22:8And nations will pass through this city, and each will say to his neighbor: Why did the Lord act this way toward this great city?
22:9And they will say: Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, bowed down to foreign gods, and served them.
22:10Do not weep for the dead or lament him; weep bitterly for the one going out, because he will never return or see his homeland.
Concerning Shallum
22:11Because thus says the Lord concerning Shallum son of Josiah, who reigned in place of his father Josiah and went out from this place: He will not return there again,
22:12but in the place where I deported him, there he will die, and he will never see this land again.
Woe to Him Who Builds Without Righteousness
22:13O you who build your house without righteousness and your upper rooms without judgment! He works through his neighbor without payment and will not give him his wages.
22:14You built yourself a well-proportioned house, airy upper rooms set apart by windows, paneled with cedar and painted with red ocher.
22:15Will you reign because you are provoked in Ahaz your father? They will not eat or drink. It was better for you to do judgment and good righteousness.
22:16They did not know; they did not judge a case for the lowly or a case for the poor. Is this not your failing to know Me? says the Lord.
22:17Look, neither your eyes nor your heart are good; instead they are directed toward your greed, innocent blood to shed it, wrongdoing, and murder to commit it.
22:18Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: Woe upon this man! They will certainly not mourn him, O brother! Nor will they weep for him, Alas, lord!
22:19He will be buried with a donkey’s burial; swept up, he will be thrown beyond Jerusalem’s gate.
22:20Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan and shout to the far side of the sea, because all your lovers have been shattered.
Disobedient from Youth
22:21I spoke to you in your falling away, and you said, I will not listen. This is your way from your youth: you did not hear My voice.
22:22Wind will shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers will go out in captivity. Then you will be ashamed and dishonored because of all who love you.
22:23You who dwell in Lebanon and nest among the cedars will groan when pangs come upon you like those of a woman giving birth.
22:24As I live, says the Lord, even if Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, becomes a signet on My right hand, I will pull you off from there,
Handed into the Hands of Those Seeking Your Life
22:25and hand you into the hands of those seeking your life, those before whom you are afraid, into the hands of the Chaldeans.
22:26And I will cast you and your mother who bore you into a land where you were not born, and there you both will die.
22:27But to the land for which they pray in their souls, they will certainly not return.
22:28Jeconiah was dishonored like a vessel for which there is no use, because he was cast out and thrown into a land he did not know.
Land, Land, Hear the Lord’s Word
22:29Land, land, hear the Lord’s word:
22:30Record this man as an outcast, because no man from his offspring will grow great sitting on David’s throne and ruling again in Judah.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.