1Thus says the LORD: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word,

2and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates.

3Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

4For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people.

5But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.

6For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: "'You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city.

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

8"'And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, "Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?"

9And they will answer, "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them."'"