Part 509 (1/2)
22:7. And I will prepare against thee the destroyer and his weapons: and they shall cut down thy chosen cedars, and shall cast them headlong into the fire.
Prepare... Literally, sanctify.
22:8. And many nations shall pa.s.s by this city: and they shall say every man to his neighbour: Why hath the Lord done so to this great city?
22:9. And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their G.o.d, and have adored strange G.o.ds, and served them.
22:10. Weep not for him that is dead, nor bemoan him with your tears: lament him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
Weep not for him that is dead, etc... He means the good king Josias, who by death was taken away, so as not to see the miseries of his country.
Ibid. Him that goeth away... Viz., sellum, alias Joachaz, who was carried captive into Egypt.
22:11. For thus saith the Lord to Sellum the son of Josias the king of Juda, who reigned instead of his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall return hither no more:
22:12. But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall he die, and he shall not see this land any more.
22:13. Woe to him that buildeth up his house by injustice, and his chambers not in judgment: that will oppress his friend without cause, and will not pay him his wages.
22:14. Who saith: I will build me a wide house, and large chambers: who openeth to himself windows, and maketh roofs of cedar, and painteth them with vermilion.
22:15. Shalt thou reign, because thou comparest thyself to the cedar?
did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and it was then well with him?
22:16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good: was it not therefore because he knew me, saith the Lord?
22:17. But thy eyes and thy heart are set upon covetousness, and upon shedding innocent blood, and upon oppression, and running after evil works.
22:18. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda: They shall not mourn for him, Alas, my brother, and, Alas, sister: they shall not lament for him, Alas, my lord, or, Alas, the n.o.ble one.
22:19. He shall be buried with the burial of an a.s.s, rotten and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem.
22:20. Go up to Liba.n.u.s, and cry: and lift up thy voice in Basan, and cry to them that pa.s.s by, for all thy lovers are destroyed.
22:21. I spoke to thee in thy prosperity: and thou saidst: I will not hear: this hath been thy way from thy youth, because thou hast not heard my voice.
22:22. The wind shall feed all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity and then shalt thou be confounded, and ashamed of all thy wickedness.
22:23. Thou that sittest in Liba.n.u.s, and makest thy nest in the cedars, how hast thou mourned when sorrows came upon thee, as the pains of a woman in labour?
22:24. As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him thence.
22:25. And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
22:26. And I will send thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a strange country, in which you were not born, and there you shall die:
22:27. And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they lift up their mind to return thither.
22:28. Is this man Jechonias an earthen and a broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?