Study Desk

O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.

Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day departeth, for the shadows of the evening are lengthened.

For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this [is] the city to be visited; she [is] wholly oppression in the midst of her.

Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with [him that is] full of days.

And their houses shall be turned to others, [with their] fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.

For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one [is] given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest every one dealeth falsely.

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk in it, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [in it].

They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they [are] cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.

Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy [and] fear [is] on every side.

O daughter of my people, gird [thee] with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, [as for] an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.

I have set thee [for] a tower [and] a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

The bellows is burned, the lead is consumed by the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;

Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

But go ye now to my place which [was] in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices:

Cut off thy hair, [O Jerusalem], and cast [it] away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there shall be no place.