7. I will send people to destroy you.They will have their own weapons.They will cut down your finest cedar treesand throw them on a fire.
8. “People from many nations will pass by this city and ask each other, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this important city?’
9. The answer will be: ‘They rejected the promise of the Lord their God. They worshiped other gods and served them.’ ”
10. Don’t cry for the dead.Don’t shake your heads at them.Cry bitterly for those who are taken away,because they won’t come back to see their homeland.
11. This is what the Lord says about King Josiah’s son Shallum, who succeeded his father as king of Judah and left this place: He will never come back here again.
12. He will die in the place where he was taken captive, and he will never see this land again.
13. “How horrible it will be for the person who builds his house dishonestlyand his upper rooms through injustice.He makes his neighbors work for nothingand doesn’t pay them for their work.
14. He says, ‘I will build a large house for myself with big upper rooms.’He cuts out windows in it,panels the rooms with cedar,and paints them red.