1. Thus said Yahweh: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
2. ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.
3. Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence, to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place.
4. For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on David’s throne, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
5. But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself,” says Yahweh, “that this house shall become a desolation.”’”
6. For Yahweh says concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are Gilead to me, the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.
7. I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons, and they will cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8. “Many nations will pass by this city, and they will each ask his neighbor, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this great city?’
9. Then they shall answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.’”
10. Don’t weep for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11. For Yahweh says touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went out of this place: “He shall not return there any more.