1 Thus saith the Lord; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
2 And say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:
3 Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
5 But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
6 For thus saith the Lord unto the king's house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
7 And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8 And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city?
9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
10 Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For thus saith the Lord touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
12 But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
14 That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
15 Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord.
17 But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
18 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of 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!
19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.
22 The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
24 As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;
25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
27 But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
30 Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.
<html><b>do no wrong</b> This means taunting with words.</html>
<html><b>You are [as] Gilead to Me, etc.</b> Even if you are as dear to Me as the Temple, which is high on the mountain peaks, I swear that I will make you a desert. <b>You are [as] Gilead</b> The Temple from which balm and healing emanate to the whole world.</html>
<html><b>And I will prepare</b> and I will prepare. <b>and they will cut your choice cedars</b> Since he compares him to the Lebanon, this expression is appropriate.</html>
<html><b>Weep not for the dead</b> Namely, for Jehoiakim, who will die before the gate, when they drag him into exile. <b>weep for him who goes</b> For Jehoiachin and for Zedekiah. Deduce from here that Jehoiakim’s death, concerning which it is stated (infra 36:30): “And his carcass shall be cast to the heat by day and to the cold at night,” is preferable to the life of Jehoiachin, about whom it is stated (52:34): “And his meals, regular meals, etc.”</html>
<html><b>concerning Shallum</b> That is Zedekiah, and that is what he was called in I Chron. (3:14): “the fourth Shallum.” And he called him the Fourth, meaning the fourth to assume the kingship of Josiah’s sons, for first Jehoaha, reigned, then Jehoiakim, and after him Jehoiachin, and after him Zedekiah. <b>who left</b> Even though he hadn’t left yet, he prophesied as if he had already left.</html>
<html><b>Woe to him who builds his house</b> He is saying this about Jehoiakim, who was a wicked man, and the end of the section proves this: “Therefore, so said the Lord about Jehoiakim.”</html>
<html><b>a wide house</b> a large house. Cf. (Num. 13:32) “Men of great stature (אַנְֹשֵי מִדּוֹת),” who have what to measure. <b>and he cuts out…for himself</b> And he widens for himself (Some emend: And he opens for himself) Comp. (supra 4:30) “that you enlarge (וַתִּקְרְעִי)…with paint.” Also (Isaiah 63:19), “Had You rent (קָרַעְתְּ) the heavens, had You descended.” They are all an expression of opening. <b>and ceiled with cedar</b> He covers the roof with cedars. <b>and painted with vermilion</b> painted with dyes, so does Jonathan render. בּשָּׁשַּׁר is a color of a type used for painting. Another explanation: וּמָשּׁוֹחַ בִּשָּׁשַּׁר is like a cord used for measuring (חוּט הַמִּשְּׁחָה) ([a] lignant en sinople in O.F.), drawing green lines, delineate with a green color.</html>
<html><b>Shall you reign</b> Will you live long that you contend to make your rule oppressive to let all know that you are a king? <b>your father</b> Josiah, who demeaned himself with humility, did he not eat and drink and enjoy pleasure all the days of his life?</html>
<html><b>on your gain</b> to steal money. <b>the crushing</b> the crushing of the poor, and עֹשֶק, oppression proves it, for ‘oppressed’ and ‘crushed’ are always juxtaposed in the language of the Scriptures. Cf. (I Sam. 12: 3) “Whom did I oppress or whom did I crush?”</html>
<html><b>Hoe, his glory!</b> Woe for his glory.</html>
<html><b>A donkey’s burial</b> As they drag the carcass of a donkey, so will they drag his carcass. The word יְֹשַגְּרוּן used by Targum Jonathan means, they will drag.</html>
<html><b>Ascend the Lebanon and cry</b> Go up to the Temple and cry. <b>and on Bashan give forth your voice</b> On Bashan which will be destroyed. And Jonathan paraphrased: And in the gates of the Temple Mount. And I do not know how to explain how the expression ‘Bashan’ fits to the gates of the Temple Mount, unless it is because of the doors which they make from the terebinths of Bashan, and that is the name of a place, or the expression, ‘Bashan’ denotes a place of a wide valley. So is the area of the Temple Mount an open area around the Temple. <b>and cry for Avarim</b> And cry for Megizatha. They are place names.</html>
<html><b>in your peaceful times</b> when you lived in peace.</html>
<html><b>All your shepherds</b> All your kings. <b>shall be broken by the wind</b> The east wind shall break them.</html>
<html><b>who nest in the cedars</b> For you placed your nest in the towers of the cedar houses to build wide houses. <b>how gracious shall you be</b> What grace have you found because of the height of your towers, in the eyes of your plunderers, when birth pangs come upon you. And Menahem interpreted נֵחַנְתְּ as an expression of camping, but Dunash interpreted it as an expression of grace.</html>
<html><b>a signet</b> Engraved and sealed in the flesh of My arm. <b>I will remove you</b> Cf. (supra 12:3) “Draw them out (התִקֵם) like sheep to the slaughter” (Jos. 8:6) “Until we have drawn (התִקֵינוּ) them.” And the ‘nun’ is superfluous. And, according to the Midrash Aggadah (Pesikta d’Rav Kahana, p. 163a): In the place to which he was removed (נִתַּק), there he was rectified (נִתְקַן), for he repented in Babylon, and the Holy One, blessed be He, applied for absolution of the oath He had sworn, “Inscribe this man childless.” and Zerubbabel was born to him in Babylon, and it was said to him through the prophet (Haggai 2:23), “On that day…I will take you, Zerubbabel, and I will make you as a signet,” directed toward what He said to his father, “Though…be a signet on My right arm,…I will remove him (sic).”</html>
<html><b>And I will cast</b> an expression of throwing.</html>
<html><b>they long</b> This is an expression of consolation, that their soul lifts itself to console itself and to say, “We will again return to our land.”</html>
<html><b>Is…a despised… image</b> It is a rhetorical question. Is this man a broken and despised image, that he was cast away from My face like a vessel in which there is no use? <b>shattered</b> broken. Cf. (Psalms 2: 8) “Like a potter’s vessel you shall shatter them (תְּנַפְּצֵם).” [Others annotated: הַעֶצֶב is like the idols (הָעֲצַבִּים). “We may swathe (מְעַצְּבִין) an infant” in Tractate Shabbath 22:6. That is to say, “Are you despised and broken in your eyes like a small infant who is being swathed (emmailloter in French)? This one is not worthy.” <b>cast away</b> thrown, an expression of throwing that has no restoration. Comp. (Psalms 37:24), “If he falls, he will not be cast off (יוּטָל).”</html>
<html><b>O land, land, land</b> A land that is a land among lands, the most esteemed of all of them. Another explanation: Eretz Israel had three lands in it. Judea, Transjordania, and Galilee.</html>
<html><b>a man who will not prosper in his days</b> Inscribe him.</html>