Jeremiah 22:15
Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
The rebuke is aimed at a king who builds a wide house with large chambers and encloses himself in cedar for selfish pleasure through fraud and oppression and by using a neighbor's labor without wages, when he should have led in confession of sin and in reformation and good works. Enclosing oneself in cedar and building luxuriously does not secure a reign, and it does not make a ruler just or fit to reign or acceptable to God. In contrast stands the king's father Josiah, who ate and drank in ordinary life yet practiced judgment and justice, and therefore it went well with him and he prospered.
To judge the cause of the poor and needy was what it meant to know God. The opposite course is eyes and heart set only for covetousness, joined with shedding innocent blood and with oppression and violence. Judgment falls on such a king with no mourning over him as brother or lord, but with a donkey's burial, dragged and cast beyond the gates of Jerusalem, fulfilled within a few years.
This failure of justice and faithfulness explains the later desolation of the nation despite its great light and blessings and prosperity, as the result of unfaithfulness to the trust and light given to it. The warning against covetousness and oppression applies to the liquor trade, whose business is robbery because sellers receive money without giving an equivalent in return, and each dollar of their gain brings a curse on those who spend the money.