1   Thvs saith our Lord: ^note Goe downe into the house of the king of Iuda, and there thou shalt speake this word,

2   and shalt say: Heare the word of our Lord ô king of Iuda,

which sittest vpon the throne of Dauid: thou and thy seruantes, and thy people, which enter in by these gates.

3   Thus saith our Lord doe ye iudgement and iustice: and deliuer the oppressed by violence out of the hand of the oppressour: and the stranger, and pupil, and widow make not sorowful, nor oppresse them vniustly: and the innocent bloud shede not in this place.

4   For if doeing you wil do this thing, there shal enter in by the gates of this house, kinges of the stocke of Dauid sitting vpon his throne, and mounting vpon chariotes and horses, they and their seruants, and their people.

5   But if you wil not heare these wordes: by my self I haue sworne, saith our Lord, that this house shal be into desolation.

6   Because thus saith our Lord vpon the house of the king of Iuda: ^noteGalaad thou art vnto me the head of ^note Libanus: if I make thee not a wildernes, cities not habitable.

7   And I wil ^note sanctifie vpon thee a killing man and his weapons: and they shal cut downe thy chosen ceders, & shal cast them headlong into the fire.

8   And manie nations shal passe by this citie: and euerie one shal say to his neighbour: Why hath the Lord done so to this great citie?

9   And they shal answer: Because they haue forsaken the couenant of the Lord their God, and haue adored strange goddes, and serued them.

10   Weepe not for the dead, neither mourne ye vpon him with weeping: Lament him that goeth forth, because he shal returne no more, nor see the land of his natiuitie.

11   Because thus saith our Lord to ^note Sellum the sonne of Iosias the king of Iuda, who ^note hath reigned for Iosias his father, who is gone forth out of this place. He shal returne hither no more:

12   but in the place, to which I haue transported him, there shal he die, and he shal not see anie this land more.

13   Woe to him that buildeth his house in iniustice, and his chambers not in iudgement: his freind he wil oppresse without cause, and his hyre he wil not render him.

14   Who saith: I wil build me a broad house, and large chambers: who openeth to himself windowes, and maketh embowed sielings of ceder, and painteth them with ruddle.

15   Why, shalt thou reigne, because thou comparest thyself to the ceder? why, did not thy father eate and drinke, and doe iudgement and iustice then when it was wel with him?

16   He iudged the cause of the poore and needie to his owne good, did he it not therefore because he knew me, saith our Lord?

17   But thine eies and hart are to auarice, and to shede innocent

bloud, and to craftie oppression, & to the course of euil worke.

18   Therefore thus saith our Lord to Ioakim the sonne of Iosias king of Iuda: They shal not mourne for him, Alas brother, and alas sister: they shal not crie together to him, Alas Lord, and alas ô noble one.

19   With the burial of an asse shal he be buried, rotted and cast forth without the gates of Ierusalem.

20   Goe vp to Libanus & crie: and in Basan geue thy voice, & crie to them that passe by, because al thy louers are destroyed.

21   I spake to thee in thine abundance: & thou saidst: I wil not heare: This is thy way from thy youth, because thou heardest not my voice.

22   The winde shal feede al thy pastores, & thy louers shal goe into captiuitie: and then shalt thou be confounded, and ashamed of al thy malice.

23   Thou that sittest in Libanus, and makest thy neste in the ceders, how hast thou mourned together when sorowes came to thee, as the sorowes of a woman in trauel?

24   I liue, saith our Lord: that if ^note Iechonias the sonne of Ioakim the king of Iuda shal be a ring on my right hand, thence wil I pluck him of.

25   And I wil geue thee into the hand of them that seeke thy life, and into the hand of them, whose face thou fearest, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldees.

26   And I wil send thee, and thy mother that bare thee, into a strange countrie, in the which you were not borne, and there you shal dye: ^note

27   and into the land, wherto they lift vp their minde to returne thither: they shal not returne.

28   Why, is this man Iechonias an earthen and broken vessel? is he a vessel without al pleasure? why are they cast away, he and his seede are cast forth into a land which they know not?

29   Earth, earth, earth, heare the word of our Lord.

30   Thus saith our Lord: Write this man barren, a man that in his daies shal not prosper: for neither shal there be a man of his seede, that shal sitte vpon the throne of Dauid, and haue power anie more in Iuda.

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