The Bible in Basic English BBE
Orthodox Jewish Bible OJB
1 This is what the Lord has said: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and there give him this word,
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2 Thus saith Hashem; Go down to the Bais Melech Yehudah, and speak there this Davar,
2 And say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, seated on the seat of David, you and your servants and your people who come in by these doors.
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And say, Hear the Devar Hashem, O Melech Yehudah, that sittest upon the kisse of Dovid, thou, and thy avadim, and thy people that enter in by these she’arim (gates);
3 This is what the Lord has said: Do what is right, judging uprightly, and make free from the hands of the cruel one him whose goods have been violently taken away: do no wrong and be not violent to the man from a strange country and the child without a father and the widow, and let not those who have done no wrong be put to death in this place.
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Thus saith Hashem; Execute ye mishpat (justice) and tzedakah (righteousness), and save the plundered out of the yad of the oshek (oppressor); and do no wrong, do no violence to the ger (alien), the yatom (orphan), nor the almanah (widow), neither shed dahm naki (innocent blood) in this makom (place).
4 For if you truly do this, then there will come in through the doors of this house kings seated on the seat of David, going in carriages and on horseback, he and his servants and his people
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For if ye carry out this davar indeed, then, shall there enter in by the she’arim (gates) of this Bais, melachim sitting upon the kisse Dovid, riding in chariots and on susim, he, and his avadim, and his people.
5 But if you do not give ear to these words, I give you my oath by myself, says the Lord, that this house will become a waste.
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But if ye will not hear these devarim, I swear a shevuah by Myself, saith Hashem, that this Bais shall become a desolation.
6 For this is what the Lord has said about the family of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, and the top of Lebanon: but, truly, I will make you waste, with towns unpeopled.
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For thus saith Hashem unto the Bais Melech Yehudah: Thou art [in grandeur] Gil‘ad unto Me, and the summit of the Levanon; yet surely I will make thee a midbar, and towns which are not inhabited.
7 And I will make ready those who will send destruction on you, everyone armed for war: by them your best cedar-trees will be cut down and put in the fire.
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And I will prepare mashchitim (destroyers) against thee, every ish with his weapons; and they shall cut down thy choice arazim (cedars), and cast them into the eish.
8 And nations from all sides will go past this town, and every man will say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done such things to this great town?
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And Goyim rabbim shall pass by this city, and they shall say every ish to his re’a (neighbor), Why hath Hashem done thus unto this ir hagedolah (great city)?
9 And they will say, Because they gave up the agreement of the Lord their God, and became worshippers and servants of other gods.
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Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the Brit Hashem Eloheihem, and worshiped elohim acherim, and served them.
10 Let there be no weeping for the dead, and make no songs of grief for him: but make bitter weeping for him who has gone away, for he will never come back or see again the country of his birth.
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Weep ye not for the one dead, neither mourn him; but weep bitterly for him that goeth away [into the Golus]; for he shall return no more, nor see his eretz moledet (native land).
11 For this is what the Lord has said about Shallum, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He will never come back there again:
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For thus saith Hashem touching Shallum Ben Yoshiyah Melech Yehudah, which reigned in place of Yoshiyah aviv, which went forth out of this makom; he shall not return there any more;
12 But death will come to him in the place where they have taken him away prisoner, and he will never see this land again.
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But he shall die in the makom where they have led him captive [into the Golus], and he shall see HaAretz Hazot no more.
13 A curse is on him who is building his house by wrongdoing, and his rooms by doing what is not right; who makes use of his neighbour without payment, and gives him nothing for his work;
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Woe unto him that buildeth his bais but not by tzedek (righteousness), and his aliyyot (upper chambers) but not by mishpat; that useth his neighbor’s service without wages, and giveth him no pay for his work;
14 Who says, I will make a wide house for myself, and rooms of great size, and has windows cut out, and has it roofed with cedar and painted with bright red.
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That saith, I will build me a large bais (mansion) and spacious aliyyot (upper rooms), and cutteth him out chalonot (windows); and panel it with erez (cedar), and paint with bright red.
15 Are you to be a king because you make more use of cedar than your father? did not your father take food and drink and do right, judging in righteousness, and then it was well for him?
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Shalt thou reign, because thou enclose thyself in erez (cedar)? Did not Avicha eat and drink, and do mishpat and tzedakah, and then it was tov (well) with him?
16 He was judge in the cause of the poor and those in need; then it was well. Was not this to have knowledge of me? says the Lord.
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He defended the cause of the oni (poor) and evyon (needy); then it was tov (well) with him; was not this to have da’as of Me? saith Hashem.
17 But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts.
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But thine eynayim (eyes) and thine lev are but for thy betza (covetousness, greed) and for to shed dahm hanaki (innocent blood), and for oshek (oppression), and for merutzah (extortion, persecution), to do it.
18 So this is what the Lord has said about Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
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Therefore thus saith Hashem concerning Y’hoyakim Ben Yoshiyah Melech Yehudah: They shall not mourn for him, saying, Ah achi! Or, Ah achot (sister)! They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah adon! Or, Ah his hod (glory)!
19 They will do to him what they do to the dead body of an ass; his body will be pulled out and placed on the earth outside the doors of Jerusalem.
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He shall be buried with the kevurat chamor (burial of a donkey), dragged and cast forth outside the Sha’arei Yerushalayim.
20 Go up to Lebanon and give a cry; let your voice be loud in Bashan, crying out from Abarim; for all your lovers have come to destruction
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Go up to the Levanon, and cry out; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry out from Avarim; for all thy lovers are crushed.
21 My word came to you in the time of your well-being; but you said, I will not give ear. This has been your way from your earliest years, you did not give attention to my voice.
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I spoke unto thee in thy security; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy derech from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not My kol (voice).
22 All the keepers of your sheep will be food for the wind, and your lovers will be taken away prisoners: truly, then you will be shamed and unhonoured because of all your evil-doing.
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The ruach shall eat up all thy ro’im (rulers), and thy lovers shall go into captivity [in the Golus]; surely then shalt thou be ashamed and humiliated because of all thy wickedness.
23 O you who are living in Lebanon, making your living-place in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied will you be when pains come on you, as on a woman in childbirth!
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O inhabitant of the Levanon, that makest thy ken (nest) in the arazim (cedars), how shalt thou groan when chavalim (birth pangs) come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
24 By my life, says the Lord, even if Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, was the ring on my right hand, even from there I would have you pulled off;
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As I live, saith Hashem, though Coniyahu [Yehoiakhin, Yechonyahu] Ben Y’hoyakim Melech Yehudah were the chotam (signet ring) upon Yad Yemini (My right Hand), yet would I pluck thee from there [2Kgs 23:33-34].
25 And I will give you into the hands of those desiring your death, and into the hands of those whom you are fearing, even into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldaeans.
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And I will give thee into the yad of them that seek thy nefesh, and into the yad of them of whom thou art afraid, even into the yad of Nevuchadretzar Melech Babylon, and into the yad of the Kasdim.
26 I will send you out, and your mother who gave you birth, into another country not the land of your birth; and there death will come to you.
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And I will cast thee out, and immecha that bore thee, into ha’aretz acheret (another country), where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
27 But to the land on which their soul's desire is fixed, they will never come back.
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But to HaAretz whereunto they desire to return, to these shall they not return.
28 Is this man Coniah a broken vessel of no value? is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure? why are they violently sent out, he and his seed, into a land which is strange to them?
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Is this man Coniyahu a despised broken etzev (image, statue)? Is he a vessel wherein is no chefetz? Why are they cast out, he and his zera, and are cast into ha’aretz which they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, give ear to the word of the Lord!
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O eretz, eretz, eretz, hear the Devar Hashem.
30 The Lord has said, Let this man be recorded as having no children, a man who will not do well in all his life: for no man of his seed will do well, seated on the seat of the kingdom of David and ruling again in Judah.
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Thus saith Hashem, Write ye this ish ariri (childless, stripped of the honor that progeny bestows), a gever (man) who shall not prosper in his days; for none of his zera shall prosper, sitting upon the kisse Dovid, or moshel od (rule anymore) in Yehudah.
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The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.