Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
Execute ye judgment - in which respect Zedekiah had been warned as deficient (Jeremiah 21:12), "Execute judgment in the morning." Jehoiakim is meant here especially: he, by oppression, levied the tribute imposed on him by Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt (2 Chronicles 36:3), who had changed his name from Eliakim to Jehoiakim, and raised him to the throne instead of Jehoahaz. He heavily taxed his people, and took their labour without pay, to build gorgeous palaces for himself (Jeremiah 22:13-17), and shed innocent blood, e.g., that of Urijah the prophet (Jeremiah 26:20-24; 2 Kings 23:35; following in the steps of Manasseh, 2 Kings 24:4).