Study Desk

Adonai has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: "Never again will I give your grain to your enemies as food; nor will strangers drink your wine, for which you worked so hard;

Go on through, go on through the gates, clear the way for the people! Build up a highway, build it up! Clear away the stones! Raise a banner for the peoples!

for the day of vengeance that was in my heart and my year of redemption have come.

For he said, "They are indeed my people, children who are not disloyal." So he became their Savior.

for you are our father. Even if Avraham were not to know us, and Isra'el were not to acknowledge us, you, Adonai , are our father, Our Redeemer of Old is your name.

Adonai , why do you let us wander from your ways and harden our hearts, so that we do not fear you? Return, for the sake of your servants, the tribes who are your possession.

For so long we have been like those you never ruled, like those who were not called by your name! We wish you would tear open heaven and come down, so the mountains would shake at your presence!

No one has ever heard, no ear perceived, no eye seen, any God but you. You work for him who waits for you.

No one calls on your name or bestirs himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and caused our misdeeds to destroy us.

class="poetry"> It would be like fire kindling the brush, and the fire then makes the water boil. Then your enemies would know your name, the nations would tremble before you! When you did tremendous things that we were not expecting, we wished that you would come down, so that the mountains would shake at your presence! No one has ever heard, no ear perceived, no eye seen, any God but you. You work for him who waits for you. You favored those who were glad to do justice, those who remembered you in your ways. When you were angry, we kept sinning; but if we keep your ancient ways, we will be saved. All of us are like someone unclean, all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags; we wither, all of us, like leaves; and our misdeeds blow us away like the wind. No one calls on your name or bestirs himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and caused our misdeeds to destroy us. But now, Adonai , you are our father; we are the clay, you are our potter; and we are all the work of your hands. Do not be so very angry, Adonai ! Don't remember crime forever. Look, please, we are all your people. Your holy cities have become a desert, Tziyon a desert, Yerushalayim a ruin. Our holy, beautiful house, where our ancestors used to praise you, has been burned to the ground; all we cherished has been ruined. Adonai , after all this, will you still hold back? Will you still stay silent and punish us past endurance?

"I made myself accessible to those who didn't ask for me, I let myself be found by those who didn't seek me. I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!' to a nation not called by my name.

Here is what Adonai says: "As when juice is found in a cluster of grapes, and people say, ‘Don't destroy it, there is still some good in it,' so I will do likewise for the sake of my servants, and not destroy them all.

The Sharon will be a pasture for flocks, the Akhor Valley a place for cattle to rest, for my people who have sought me.

"But as for you who abandon Adonai , who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for a Gad, a god of luck, and fill bowls of mixed wine for Meni, a god of destiny —

Yes, my servants will sing for joy from their hearts, but you will cry out from the pain in your heart and howl from an anguished spirit.

Thus someone on earth who blesses himself will bless himself by the God of truth, and someone on earth who swears an oath will swear by the God of truth; for past troubles will be forgotten, hidden from my eyes.

"For, look! I create new heavens and a new earth; past things will not be remembered, they will no more come to mind.

So be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for look! I am making Yerushalayim a joy, and her people a delight.

They will not build and others live there, they will not plant and others eat; for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen will themselves enjoy the use of what they make.

They will not toil in vain or raise children to be destroyed, for they are the seed blessed by Adonai ; and their offspring with them.