Study Desk

Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding. Behold, we are come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.

Truly in vain is [the help that is looked for] from the hills, the tumult on the mountains: truly in Yahweh our God is the salvation of Israel.

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.

For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and don't sow among thorns.

Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, don't stay; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn't turned back from us.

a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter judgments against them.

Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots [shall be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are ruined.

For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim:

Your way and your doings have procured these things to you; this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.

Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.

For my people are foolish, they know don't me; they are foolish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

For thus says Yahweh, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.

For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.

Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, [saying], Woe is me now! for my soul faints before the murderers.

Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they don't know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God:

I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Go you up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh's.