“Do what is right and just;
rescue the wronged from their oppressors;
do nothing wrong or violent
to the stranger, orphan or widow;
don’t shed innocent blood in this place.

‘You are like Gil‘ad to me,
like the peak of the L’vanon;
yet I will turn you into a desert,
uninhabited cities.
⁷ I will designate men to destroy you,
each one with his weapons;
they will chop down your choice cedars
and throw them in the fire.’

¹¹ For this is what Adonai says about Shalum the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y’hudah, who succeeded Yoshiyahu his father as king: “He has left this place, never to return; ¹² but he will die in the place where they have led him captive, without seeing this land again.

¹³ “Woe to him who builds his palace unfairly,
its upper rooms by injustice;
who makes his neighbor work for free
and will not give him his wages;
¹⁴ who says, ‘I will build me a spacious palace
with airy upper rooms,’
then makes windows and cedar panels
painted with vermilion!
¹⁵ Your cedar may be excellent,
but that doesn’t make you a better king.
True, your father ate and drank,
but he also did what was right and just,
so things went well with him.
¹⁶ He upheld the cause of the poor and the weak,
so everything went well.
Isn’t that what knowing me
is all about?” says Adonai.
¹⁷ “In contrast, your eyes and heart
are controlled entirely by your greed,
your desire for shedding innocent blood,
oppressing and extorting.”

“There will be no one to mourn for him,
‘Oh! My brother!’ or ‘Oh! My sister!’
There will be no one to mourn for him,
‘Oh! My master!’ or ‘Oh! His glory!’
¹⁹ He will be given a donkey’s ‘burial’ —
dragged out the gates of Yerushalayim
and thrown away [to rot].
²⁰ Climb up to the L’vanon and cry out,
raise your voice in Bashan,
cry out from ‘Avarim,
for all your lovers are broken.
²¹ I spoke to you in your times of prosperity,
but you said, ‘I won’t listen.’
This has been your pattern since you were young —
you pay no attention to what I say.
²² The wind will shepherd all your shepherds away,
and your lovers will go into captivity.
Then you will be ashamed and disgraced
for all your wicked deeds.
²³ You who live in the L’vanon,
nesting in the cedars,
how gracious will you be
when pains come on you like a woman in labor?

²⁸ Is this man Koniyahu
a despised, broken pot,
an instrument nobody wants?
Why are they being thrown out?
Why are he and his offspring thrown out
into a country they do not know?
²⁹ Oh, land, land, land!
Hear the word of Adonai!
³⁰ This what Adonai says:
“List this man as childless;
he is a lifetime failure —
none of his offspring will succeed,
none will sit on David’s throne
or rule again in Y’hudah.”