Study Desk

Go proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Repent, O you inhabitant of Israel, says the LORD; and I will not be severe against you; for I am good, says the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

Only acknowledge your iniquity, for you have sinned against the LORD your God, and have scattered your evil practices to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says the LORD.

Repent, O backsliding children, says the LORD; for I was pleased with you; and took one person of you from every town and two from every family, and I brought you to Zion.

A voice was heard on the highways, the weeping and supplications of the children of Israel; for they have perverted their ways, and they have forsaken the LORD their God.

Repent, O you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings; and say, Behold, we are yours; for thou art the LORD our God.

Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from fortified mountains; truly, in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

For shame has devoured the labor of our fathers from their childhood, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

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

For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Light your lamp; and sow not among thorns.

Set up the standard toward Zion; be strong, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

For this gird yourself with sackcloth, mourn and lament; for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from you.

Then I said, I beseech thee, O LORD God, surely I have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem; for I have said, You shall have peace; and behold, the sword reaches into the soul.

Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are plundered.

For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims affliction from mount Ephraim.

Destruction shall come upon destruction; for the whole land is plundered; suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains are fallen down.

For my people are foolish; they have not known me; they are stupid children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

For thus says the LORD God, The whole land shall be desolate; yet I will not make a full end.

For this the earth shall mourn and the heavens above shall be darkened; because of everything that I have spoken; I have purposed it and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

For I have heard a voice as of a sick woman, and the anguish as of a woman who is in travail to bring forth her child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who is wearied and who spreads her hands, saying. Woe is me! for my soul faints because of my men who are slain.

Therefore I said, It is because they are poor; they have gone astray, for they do not know the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.