Armiya 22

Thus said Allah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2Say, Hear the word of Allah, king of Judah, who sits on the throne of Dawud, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates. 3Thus says Allah: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of Dawud, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. 5But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says Allah, that this house shall become a desolation. 6For thus says Allah concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, and the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited. 7I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. 8Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Why has Allah done thus to this great city? 9Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Allah their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them. 10Do not weep for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep greatly for him who goes away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. 11For thus says Allah touching Shallum Ibn Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went forth out of this place: He shall not return there any more. 12But in the place where they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more. 13Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; who uses his neighbour’s service without wages, and does not give him his hire; 14who says, I will build myself a wide house and spacious chambers, and cut out windows; paneled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. 15Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn’t 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. Wasn’t this to know me? says Allah. 17But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it. 18Therefore thus says Allahconcerning Jehoiakim Ibn Josiah, king of Judah: they shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah my brother!’ or, ‘Ah sister!’ They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah lord!’ or, ‘Ah his glory!’ 19He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. 20Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed. 21I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you did not obey my voice. 22The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then you shall be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness. 23Inhabitant of Lebanon, who make your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied shall you be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in labour! 24As I live, says Allah, though Coniah Ibn Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you from there; 25and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there you shall die. 27But to the land to which their soul longs to return, there shall they not return. 28Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which no one delights? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and cast into the land which they do not know? 29O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Allah. 30Thus says Allah, Write this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting on the throne of Dawud, and ruling in Judah.

 

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