Study Desk

"Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.

He says, 'I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.' So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red.

"Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.

He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD .

"But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion."

Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: "They will not mourn for him: 'Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!' They will not mourn for him: 'Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!'

He will have the burial of a donkey- dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem."