6For thus said the LORD concerning the royal palace of Judah:
You are as Gilead to Me,
As the summit of Lebanon;
But I will make you a desert,
Uninhabited towns.
7I will appoint destroyers against you,
Each with his tools;
They shall cut down your choicest cedars
And make them fall into the fire.
8And when many nations pass by this city and one man asks another, “Why did the LORD do thus to that great city?” 9the reply will be, “Because they forsook the covenant with the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.”
10Do not weep for the deada
And do not lament for him;
Weep rather for b-him who is leaving,-b
For he shall never come back
To see the land of his birth!
11For thus said the LORD concerning Shallumb son of King Josiah of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah as king, but who has gone forth from this place: He shall never come back. 12He shall die in the place to which he was exiled, and he shall not see this land again.
13Ha! he who builds his house with unfairness
And his upper chambers with injustice,
Who makes his fellow man work without pay
And does not give him his wages,
14Who thinks: I will build me a vast palace
With spacious upper chambers,
Provided with windows,
Paneled in cedar,
Painted with vermilion!
15Do you think you are more a king
Because you compete in cedar?
Your father c-ate and drank-c
And dispensed justice and equity—
Then all went well with him.
16He upheld the rights of the poor and needy—
Then all was well.
d-That is truly heeding Me-d
—declares the LORD.
17But your eyes and your mind are only
On ill-gotten gains,
On shedding the blood of the innocent,
On committing fraud and violence.
18Assuredly, thus said the LORD concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:
e-They shall not mourn for him,
“Ah, brother! Ah, sister!”
They shall not mourn for him,
“Ah, lord! Ah, his majesty!”-e
19He shall have the burial of an ass,
Dragged out and left lying
Outside the gates of Jerusalem.
20fClimb Lebanon and cry out,
Raise your voice in Bashan,
Cry out from Abarim,
For all your lovers are crushed.
21I spoke to you when you were prosperous;
You said, “I will not listen.”
That was your way ever since your youth,
You would not heed Me.
22All your shepherdsg shall be devoured by the wind,
And your lovers shall go into captivity.
Then you shall be shamed and humiliated
Because of all your depravity.
23You who dwell in Lebanon,
Nestled among the cedars,
h-How much grace will you have-h
When pains come upon you,
Travail as in childbirth!
24As I live—declares the LORD—i-if you, O King Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, of Judah, were-i a signet on my right hand, I would tear you off even from there. 25I will deliver you into the hands of those who seek your life, into the hands of those you dread, into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and into the hands of the Chaldeans. 26I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another land, where you were not born; there you shall both die. 27They shall not return to the land that they yearn to come back to.
28Is this man Coniah
A wretched broken pot,
A vessel no one wants?
Why are he and his offspring hurled out,
And cast away in a land they knew not?
29O land, land, land,
Hear the word of the LORD!
30Thus said the LORD:
Record this man as without succession,
One who shall never be found acceptable;
For no man of his offspring shall be accepted
To sit on the throne of David
And to rule again in Judah.
23 Ah, shepherds who let the flock of My pasture stray and scatter!— declares the LORD. 2Assuredly, thus said the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who should tend My people: It is you who let My flock scatter and go astray. You gave no thought to them, but I am going to give thought to you, for your wicked acts—declares the LORD. 3And I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock from all the lands to which I have banished them, and I will bring them back to their pasture, where they shall be fertile and increase. 4And I will appoint over them shepherds who will tend them; they shall no longer fear or be dismayed, and none of them shall be missing—declares the LORD.
5See, a time is coming—declares the LORD—when I will raise up a true branch of David’s line. He shall reign as king and shall prosper, and he shall do what is just and right in the land. 6In his days Judah shall be delivered and Israel shall dwell secure. And this is the name by which he shall be called: “The LORD is our Vindicator.”
7Assuredly, a time is coming—declares the LORD—when it shall no more be said, “As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,” 8but rather, “As the LORD lives, who brought out and led the offspring of the House of Israel from the northland and from all the lands to which I have banished them.” And they shall dwell upon their own soil.
9Concerning the prophets.
My heart is crushed within me,
All my bones are trembling;a
I have become like a drunken man,
Like one overcome by wine—
Because of the LORD and His holy word.
10For the land is full of adulterers,
The land mourns because of b-a curse;-b
The pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
c-For they run to do evil,
They strain to do wrong.-c
11For both prophet and priest are godless;
Even in My House I find their wickedness
—declares the LORD.
12Assuredly,
Their path shall become
Like slippery ground;
They shall be thrust into darkness
And there they shall fall;
For I will bring disaster upon them,
The year of their doom
—declares the LORD.
13In the prophets of Samaria
I saw a repulsive thing:
They prophesied by Baal
And led My people Israel astray.
14But what I see in the prophets of Jerusalem
Is something horrifying:
Adultery and false dealing.
They encourage evildoers,
So that no one turns back from his wickedness.
To Me they are all like Sodom,
And [all] its inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15Assuredly, thus said the LORD of Hosts concerning the prophets:
I am going to make them eat wormwood
And drink a bitter draft;
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
Godlessness has gone forth to the whole land.
16Thus said the LORD of Hosts:
Do not listen to the words of the prophets
Who prophesy to you.
They are deluding you,
The prophecies they speak are from their own minds,
Not from the mouth of the LORD.
17They declare to men who despise Me:
The LORD has said:
“All shall be well with you”;
And to all who follow their willful hearts they say:
“No evil shall befall you.”
18But he who has stood in the council of the LORD,
And seen, and heard His word—
He who has listened to His word must obey.d
19e-Lo, the storm of the LORD goes forth in fury,
A whirling storm,
It shall whirl down upon the heads of the wicked.
20The anger of the LORD shall not turn back
Till it has fulfilled and completed His purposes.-e
In the days to come
You shall clearly perceive it.
21I did not send those prophets,
But they rushed in;
I did not speak to them,
Yet they prophesied.
22If they have stood in My council,
Let them announce My words to My people
And make them turn back
From their evil ways and wicked acts.
23Am I only a God near at hand
—says the LORD—
And not a God far away?
24If a man enters a hiding place,
Do I not see him?
—says the LORD.
For I fill both heaven and earth
—declares the LORD.
25I have heard what the prophets say, who prophesy falsely in My name: “I had a dream, I had a dream.” 26a-How long will there be-a in the minds of the prophets who prophesy falsehood—the prophets of their own deceitful minds—27the plan to make My people forget My name, by means of the dreams which they tell each other, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal? 28Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream; and let him who has received My word report My word faithfully! How can straw be compared to grain?—says the LORD. 29Behold, My word is like fire—declares the LORD—and like a hammer that shatters rock!
30Assuredly, I am going to deal with the prophets—declares the LORD— who steal My words from one another. 31I am going to deal with the prophets—declares the LORD—who waga their tongues and make oracular utterances. 32I am going to deal with those who prophesy lying dreams—declares the LORD—who relate them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies, when I did not send them or command them. They do this people no good—declares the LORD.
33And when this people—or a prophet or a priest—asks you, “What is the burdenf of the LORD?” you shall answer them, g-“What is the burden?-g I will cast you off”—declares the LORD.
34As for the prophet or priest or layman who shall say “the burden of the LORD,” I will punish that person and his house. 35Thus you shall speak to each other, every one to his fellow, “What has the LORD answered?” or “What has the LORD spoken?” 36But do not mention “the burden of the LORD” any more. a-Does a man regard his own word as a “burden,”-a that you pervert the words of the living God,
