Study Desk

So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies, and all the people did not listen to the voice of Yahweh to stay in the land of Judah.

So my wrath and my anger were poured out and burned in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became as a site of ruins, as a desolation, as they are this day.'

So then, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Why are you doing great harm to yourselves, to cut off for yourselves man and woman, child and suckling, from the midst of Judah, to not leave over for yourselves a remnant,

provoking me to anger with the works of your hands, to make smoke offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to dwell as aliens, so as to cut off yourselves, and so that you are becoming as a curse, and as a disgrace among all the nations of the earth?

So I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt just as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague.

And this will be to you the sign,' declares Yahweh, ‘that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that surely my words will endure against you for evil.'

"How it is filled with terror! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back! He is disgraced! So Moab has become as a derision, and as a terror for all his surrounding peoples."

Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan to a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream. So I will chase him away hurriedly from it. And whoever is chosen I will appoint over it. For who is like me, and who can summon me? And who is this, the shepherd who can stand before me?"

So I will shatter Elam before their enemies, and before the seekers of their life. And I will bring disaster upon them, my burning anger,' declares Yahweh. ‘And I will send after them the sword until I have destroyed them.

Raise a war cry against her on all sides. She has surrendered. Her towers have fallen, her walls are ruined. For this is the vengeance of Yahweh. Take revenge on her. As she has done to others, so do to her.

Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp all around her, there must not be for her an escape. Take revenge on her according to her deeds. According to all that she has done, so do to her. For against Yahweh she has behaved insolently, against the Holy One of Israel.

A sword against his horses, and against his chariots, and against all the foreign troops who are in the midst of her, so that they may become as women. A sword against her treasures, so that they may be plundered.

Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan against a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream, so I will chase them away quickly from her, and I will appoint whoever is chosen over her. For who is like me, and who can summon me, and who is this shepherd who can stand before me?

At their becoming hot I will set their banquets, and I will make them drunk, so that they will fall into a swoon, and they will sleep an everlasting sleep, and they will not wake up," declares Yahweh.

Now so that you are not fainthearted, and you are afraid at the rumors that are heard in the land— and in the year the rumor comes, and in the year after it the rumor, and violence is in the land, with ruler against ruler—

And you must say, ‘Yahweh, you yourself spoke against this place, to destroy it, so that there will not be in it anything living, from humankind to animals, for it will be an everlasting desolation.'

So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

And the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah left from its land.

So he changed the garments of his imprisonment and he ate food before him continually all the days of his life.

What can I say for you? What can I compare to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you so that I can comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as vast as the sea; who can heal you?