Against evil kings
1 ① Yahweh said to me, “Go to the palace of the king of Judah and give him this message: 2Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah who sit on the throne of David. To you, your servants and all who enter by these gates, 3Yahweh says:
Practice justice and do good.
Free the oppressed from their oppressor.
Harm not the foreigners, the orphans and the widows; do them no violence, and let no innocent blood be spilled in this place.
4If you do this, kings succeeding King David will enter these gates riding on their chariots and horses, together with their servants and their people.
5But if you do not heed my word
– it is Yahweh who speaks I swear by myself that this place will become a ruin.”
6For this is what Yahweh says of the royal house of Judah:
For me you are like Gilead, like a peak of Lebanon! And yet I will transform you into a desert, a city where no one lives. 7I will prepare destroyers to attack you, each with an axe in his hand. They will cut down your choice cedars and throw them into the fire.
8Pagans without number will pass by this city and say to one another, “Why has Yahweh dealt with this great city in such a way?” 9And they will answer, “Be cause they broke their covenant with Yah weh, their God, and worshiped and served other gods!”
10Weep not for the one who is dead! grieve not for him.
Mourn rather for him who is in exile for he will never return to see his homeland again!
11For this is what Yahweh has said of King Josiah’s son, Shallum, who succeeded his father as king of Judah:
12“He will never return, for he will die in the place to which he has been deported and will never see this land again.
Against Jehoiakim
13Damned is the one who builds his house with stolen goods, and extends it upwards by means of in justice;
he who makes his fellowman work for nothing and refuses to give him his wages!
14So you build for yourself a fine palace with spacious upper rooms!
So you have large windows put in, you have it paneled with cedarwood and painted vermillion.
15Does amassing cedar make you more of a king?
Was not your father a just man? He ate and drank to his life’s content, but he acted justly and all went well for him. 16He defended the cause of the poor and needy: this is the meaning of knowing Yahweh.
17But your eyes and heart are set on selfish gain, on the shedding of innocent blood, and oppressive violence.
18Therefore this is what Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:
No one shall lament for him saying: Alas, my brother! Alas, O sister! No one shall lament for him saying: Alas, my lord! Alas, your majesty! 19He will be given the burial of a donkey, dragged away and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20Go up to Lebanon and cry out; weep from the heights of Bashan cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers have been crushed. 21I spoke to you in more fortunate days, but you said: ‘I will not listen.’ You have been like that since your youth, paying no attention to my word.
22All your shepherds will be scattered by the wind and your lovers will be taken captive; then you will be covered with shame because of your evil deeds.
23You who call your house: ‘Lebanon’ and made your nest of cedarwood, how you will groan when sorrow comes like the birthpangs of a woman in labor!
24By my life – says Yahweh – even if Jeconiah, Jehoiakim’s son, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand I would pull him off!
25I will hand you to those who seek your life, to the Chaldeans you fear. 26Then I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into a foreign land where you were not born. There you shall die, 27for to the land for which you long, you will never return!”
28Is this Jeconiah a broken and useless crock that no one wants? Why has he been expelled, he and his family, to a land they do not know?
29Land, land, land! Hear what Yahweh says. 30These are his words, “List this man as childless!” None of his race will succeed; not one will be fortunate to sit on David’s throne and rule again over Judah.
- Jer 22,1 The passage in 21:1-10 refers to the second siege of Jerusalem in 588. Then from 22:1-28 we have several oracles against the royal family, before the first siege, in the years 605-598. See 2 Kings 23:31-37 concerning those kings. In those days, the nobility and the civil servants of Jerusalem lived as usual, without being concerned about the ongoing crises of the kingdom. Yet, before long, they would all be killed or exiled. The same is also true now: rich countries and people are enjoying themselves and live in indifference on top of a volcano. A few words of Dom Helder Camara are appropriate here: There has always been violence. But now it is perhaps more massive than ever; it is everywhere and it takes on many forms: brutal, open, subtle, blind, rationalized, consolidated, anonymous, abstract, irresponsible. If the powerful of the underdeveloped world do not have the courage to let go of their privileges and to bring justice to millions of people living in subhuman situations; if governments make reforms only on paper; how can we stop the young people who are tempted to adopt radically violent positions? How long will atomic bombs be feared more than the bomb of poverty which is being built in the heart of the third world?
