Study Desk

For a short time your special nation possessed a land, but then our adversaries knocked down your holy sanctuary.

Since ancient times no one has heard or perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who intervenes for those who wait for him.

No one invokes your name, or makes an effort to take hold of you. For you have rejected us and handed us over to our own sins.

"I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; I appeared to those who did not look for me. I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!' to a nation that did not invoke my name.

They say, ‘Keep to yourself! Don't get near me, for I am holier than you!' These people are like smoke in my nostrils, like a fire that keeps burning all day long.

for your sins and your ancestors' sins," says the Lord . "Because they burned incense on the mountains and offended me on the hills, I will punish them in full measure."

This is what the Lord says: "When juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes, someone says, ‘Don't destroy it, for it contains juice.' So I will do for the sake of my servants— I will not destroy everyone.

Sharon will become a pasture for sheep, and the Valley of Achor a place where cattle graze; they will belong to my people, who seek me.

But as for you who abandon the Lord and forget about worshiping at my holy mountain, who prepare a feast for the god called ‘Fortune,' and fill up wine jugs for the god called ‘Destiny'—

Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts! But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; you will wail because your spirits will be crushed.

Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth will do so in the name of the faithful God; whoever makes an oath in the earth will do so in the name of the faithful God. For past problems will be forgotten; I will no longer think about them.

For look, I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth! The former ones will not be remembered; no one will think about them anymore.

But be happy and rejoice forevermore over what I am about to create! For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem to be a source of joy, and her people to be a source of happiness.

No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, for my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced.

They will not work in vain, or give birth to children that will experience disaster. For the Lord will bless their children and their descendants.

This is what the Lord says: "The heavens are my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where then is the house you will build for me? Where is the place where I will rest?

So I will choose severe punishment for them; I will bring on them what they dread, because I called, and no one responded, I spoke and they did not listen. They did evil before me; they chose to do what displeases me."

Hear the word of the Lord , you who respect what he has to say! Your countrymen, who hate you and exclude you, supposedly for the sake of my name, say, "May the Lord be glorified, then we will witness your joy." But they will be put to shame.

Be happy for Jerusalem and rejoice with her, all you who love her! Share in her great joy, all you who have mourned over her!

For you will nurse from her satisfying breasts and be nourished; you will feed with joy from her milk-filled breasts.