International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
1This is what the LORD says: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah and tell him this: | 1This is what the LORD said to me: “Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah. Say to him, |
2Listen to this message from the LORD, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David—you, your officials, and your people who enter these gates. | 2‘Listen to this message from the LORD, you king of Judah, sitting on David’s throne. Let your attendants and your people listen, too. |
3This is what the LORD says: "Uphold justice and righteousness. Deliver from their oppressor those who have been robbed. Don't mistreat or do violence to the alien, the orphan, or the widow, or shed the blood of innocent people in this place. | 3This is what the LORD says: Be fair-minded and just. Do what is right! Help those who have been robbed; rescue them from their oppressors. Quit your evil deeds! Do not mistreat foreigners, orphans, and widows. Stop murdering the innocent! |
4Rather, carefully obey this message, and then kings sitting for David on his throne and riding in chariots and on horses will enter the gates of this house. The king will enter along with his officials and his people. | 4If you obey me, there will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. The king will ride through the palace gates in chariots and on horses, with his parade of attendants and subjects. |
5But if you don't listen to these words, I swear," declares the LORD, "that this house will become a ruin."'" | 5But if you refuse to pay attention to this warning, I swear by my own name, says the LORD, that this palace will become a pile of rubble.’” A Message about the Palace |
6For this is what the LORD says about the house of the king of Judah, "You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon. Yet I'll surely make you a desert, towns where no one lives. | 6Now this is what the LORD says concerning Judah’s royal palace: “I love you as much as fruitful Gilead and the green forests of Lebanon. But I will turn you into a desert, with no one living within your walls. |
7I'll appoint people to destroy you— men with their weapons. They'll cut down some of your choice cedars and incinerate them. | 7I will call for wreckers, who will bring out their tools to dismantle you. They will tear out all your fine cedar beams and throw them on the fire. |
8"Many nations will pass by this city and say to one another, 'Why did the LORD do this to this great city?' | 8“People from many nations will pass by the ruins of this city and say to one another, ‘Why did the LORD destroy such a great city?’ |
9Then people will respond, 'It is because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have bowed down to other gods and served them.' | 9And the answer will be, ‘Because they violated their covenant with the LORD their God by worshiping other gods.’” A Message about Jehoahaz |
10"Don't cry for the dead or grieve for them. Weep bitterly for the one going away, because he won't return again nor see the land of his birth. | 10Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss. Instead, weep for the captive king being led away! For he will never return to see his native land again. |
11"For this is what the LORD says about Josiah's son Shallum, king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father Josiah: 'He went out from this place and won't return to it again. | 11For this is what the LORD says about Jehoahaz, who succeeded his father, King Josiah, and was taken away as a captive: “He will never return. |
12He will die in the place where they exiled him, and he won't ever see this land again.'" | 12He will die in a distant land and will never again see his own country.” A Message about Jehoiakim |
13"How terrible for him who builds his house without righteousness, and its upper rooms without justice, who makes his neighbor work for nothing, and does not pay him his wage. | 13And the LORD says, “What sorrow awaits Jehoiakim, who builds his palace with forced labor. He builds injustice into its walls, for he makes his neighbors work for nothing. He does not pay them for their labor. |
14How terrible for him who says, 'I'll build a large house for myself with spacious upper rooms, who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it red.' | 14He says, ‘I will build a magnificent palace with huge rooms and many windows. I will panel it throughout with fragrant cedar and paint it a lovely red.’ |
15Are you a king because you try to outdo everyone with cedar? Your father ate and drank and upheld justice and righteousness, did he not? And then it went well for him. | 15But a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king! Your father, Josiah, also had plenty to eat and drink. But he was just and right in all his dealings. That is why God blessed him. |
16He judged the case of the poor and needy. And then it went well for him. Isn't this what it means to know me? | 16He gave justice and help to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know me?” says the LORD. |
17But your eyes and heart are on nothing but your dishonest gain, shedding the blood of innocent people, and practicing oppression and extortion." | 17“But you! You have eyes only for greed and dishonesty! You murder the innocent, oppress the poor, and reign ruthlessly.” |
18Therefore, this is what the LORD says about Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, "They won't lament for him with these words: 'How terrible, my brother, How terrible, my sister!' They won't lament for him with these words: 'How terrible, lord, How terrible, your majesty!' | 18Therefore, this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah: “The people will not mourn for him, crying to one another, ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ His subjects will not mourn for him, crying, ‘Alas, our master is dead! Alas, his splendor is gone!’ |
19He will receive a donkey's burial, dragged out and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem." | 19He will be buried like a dead donkey— dragged out of Jerusalem and dumped outside the gates! |
20Go up to Lebanon and cry out, to Bashan and lift up your voice. Cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers have been crushed. | 20Weep for your allies in Lebanon. Shout for them in Bashan. Search for them in the regions east of the river. See, they are all destroyed. Not one is left to help you. |
21I spoke to you when you were secure, but you said, "I won't listen!" This has been your way since your youth, for you haven't obeyed me. | 21I warned you when you were prosperous, but you replied, ‘Don’t bother me.’ You have been that way since childhood— you simply will not obey me! |
22The wind will shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into exile. Indeed, you will then be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness. | 22And now the wind will blow away your allies. All your friends will be taken away as captives. Surely then you will see your wickedness and be ashamed. |
23You who live in Lebanon, who build your nest in the cedars, how you will groan when pains come upon you, pain like that of a woman giving birth. | 23It may be nice to live in a beautiful palace paneled with wood from the cedars of Lebanon, but soon you will groan with pangs of anguish— anguish like that of a woman in labor. A Message for Jehoiachin |
24"As certainly as I'm alive and living," declares the LORD, "even if Jehoiakim's son King Jehoiachin of Judah were a signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off | 24“As surely as I live,” says the LORD, “I will abandon you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off. |
25and give you to those who are trying to kill you, whom you fear—that is, to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Chaldeans. | 25I will hand you over to those who seek to kill you, those you so desperately fear—to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the mighty Babylonian army. |
26I'll hurl you and the mother who gave birth to you into another land where you were not born, and there you will die. | 26I will expel you and your mother from this land, and you will die in a foreign country, not in your native land. |
27As for the land to which you want to return, you won't return there! | 27You will never again return to the land you yearn for. |
28"Is this man Jehoiachin a despised and shattered jar, a vessel no one wants? Why were he and his descendants hurled away, thrown into a land that they didn't know? | 28“Why is this man Jehoiachin like a discarded, broken jar? Why are he and his children to be exiled to a foreign land? |
29Land, land, land, listen to this message from the LORD! | 29O earth, earth, earth! Listen to this message from the LORD! |
30This is what the LORD says: 'Write this man off as childless, a man who does not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will succeed in sitting on the throne of David, or ever ruling in Judah again.'" | 30This is what the LORD says: ‘Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was childless. He is a failure, for none of his children will succeed him on the throne of David to rule over Judah.’ |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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