Study Desk

Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement; when the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter";

As often as it passes through, it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.

For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.

For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim, he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon to do his deed—strange is his deed!— and to work his work—alien is his work!

Now therefore do not scoff, or your bonds will be made stronger; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts upon the whole land.

Do those who plow for sowing plow continually? Do they continually open and harrow their ground?

For they are well instructed; their God teaches them.

Grain is crushed for bread, but one does not thresh it forever; one drives the cart wheel and horses over it, but does not pulverize it.

For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed your eyes, you prophets, and covered your heads, you seers.

The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, "Read this," they say, "We cannot, for it is sealed."

Ha! You who hide a plan too deep for the Lord , whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?"

For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be; all those alert to do evil shall be cut off—

those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit, who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate, and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.

For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

who set out to go down to Egypt without asking for my counsel, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt;

For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes,

For Egypt's help is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her, "Rahab who sits still."

Go now, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, so that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.

For they are a rebellious people, faithless children, children who will not hear the instruction of the Lord ;

therefore this iniquity shall become for you like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;