¹ Thus said Yahweh: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

² Say, Hear the word of Yahweh, king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.

³ Thus says Yahweh: 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.

⁴ For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, 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 thus says Yahweh 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.

⁷ I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

⁸ Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Why has Yahweh done thus to this great city?

⁹ Then they shall answer, Because they forsook 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 thus says Yahweh touching Shallum the son of 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.

¹² But in the place where they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more.

¹³ Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor's service without wages, and doesn't give him his hire;

¹⁴ who says, I will build me a wide house and spacious rooms, and cuts him out windows; and it is ceiling with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

¹⁵ Shall 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.

¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Wasn't this to know me? says Yahweh.

¹⁷ But 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.

¹⁸ Therefore thus says Yahweh 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 a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰ Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed.

²¹ I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your way from your youth, that you didn't obey my voice.

²² The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.

²³ Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!

²⁴ As I live, says Yahweh, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you there;

²⁵ and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there you will die.

²⁷ But to the land whereunto their soul longs to return, there shall they not return.

²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a vessel in which none delights? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they don't know?

²⁹ O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Yahweh.

³⁰ Thus says Yahweh, Write you 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 David, and ruling in Judah.

¹ Behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of Yahweh to Beth El: and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.

² He cried against the altar by the word of Yahweh, and said, "altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: 'Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name. On you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and they will burn men's bones on you.'"

³ He gave a sign the same day, saying, "This is the sign which Yahweh has spoken: Behold, the altar will be split apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out."

⁴ It happened, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam put out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him!" His hand, which he put out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back again to himself.

⁵ The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of Yahweh.

⁶ The king answered the man of God, "Now entreat the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again." The man of God entreated Yahweh, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.

⁷ The king said to the man of God, "Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward."

⁸ The man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half of your house, I would not go in with you, neither would I eat bread nor drink water in this place;

⁹ for so was it commanded me by the word of Yahweh, saying, 'You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, neither return by the way that you came.'"

¹⁰ So he went another way, and didn't return by the way that he came to Bethel.

¹¹ Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel; and one of his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.

¹² Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" Now his sons had seen which way the man of God went, who came from Judah.

¹³ He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it.

¹⁴ He went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. He said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He said, "I am."

¹⁵ Then he said to him, "Come home with me, and eat bread."

¹⁶ He said, "I may not return with you, nor go in with you; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷ For it was said to me by the word of Yahweh, 'You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that you came.'"

¹⁸ He said to him, "I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, 'Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'" He lied to him.

¹⁹ So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

²⁰ It happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who brought him back;

²¹ and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Because you have been disobedient to the mouth of Yahweh, and have not kept the commandment which Yahweh your God commanded you,

²² but came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no bread, and drink no water;" your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"

²³ It happened, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.

²⁴ When he had gone, a lion met him by the way, and killed him. His body was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the body.

²⁵ Behold, men passed by, and saw the body cast in the way, and the lion standing by the body; and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶ When the prophet who brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, "It is the man of God who was disobedient to the mouth of Yahweh. Therefore Yahweh has delivered him to the lion, which has mauled him and slain him, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke to him."

²⁷ He spoke to his sons, saying, "Saddle the donkey for me." They saddled it.

²⁸ He went and found his body cast in the way, and the donkey and the lion standing by the body. The lion had not eaten the body, nor mauled the donkey.

²⁹ The prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. He came to the city of the old prophet to mourn, and to bury him.

³⁰ He laid his body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, "Alas, my brother!"

³¹ It happened, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, "When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.

³² For the saying which he cried by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely happen."

³³ After this thing Jeroboam didn't return from his evil way, but again made priests of the high places from among all the people. Whoever wanted to, he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places.

³⁴ This thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the surface of the earth.