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22Thus says 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 sitting on the throne of David—you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. ³Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴For if you will indeed obey this word, then through the gates of this house shall enter kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their servants, and their people. ⁵But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. ⁶For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon; but I swear that I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city. ⁷I will prepare destroyers against you, all with their weapons; they shall cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire. ⁸And many nations will pass by this city, and all of them will say one to another, “Why has the Lord dealt in this way with that great city?” ⁹And they will answer, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.”

¹⁰Do not weep for him who is dead, nor bemoan him; weep rather for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land. ¹¹For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum son of King Josiah of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah, and who went away from this place: He shall return here no more, ¹²but in the place where they have carried him captive he shall die, and he shall never see this land again. ¹³Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages; ¹⁴who says, “I will build myself a spacious house with large upper rooms,” and who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar, and painting it with vermilion. ¹⁵Are you a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your 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? says the Lord. ¹⁷But your eyes and heart are only on your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence.