Study Desk

For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands, and thou saidst: 'I will not transgress'; upon every high hill and under every leafy tree thou didst recline, playing the harlot.

For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith the Lord GOD.

Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst; but thou saidst: 'There is no hope; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.'

Who say to a stock: 'Thou art my father', and to a stone: 'Thou hast brought us forth', for they have turned their back unto Me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say: 'Arise, and save us.'

But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble; for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.

Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor; thou didst not find them breaking in; yet for all these things

From him also shalt thou go forth, with thy hands upon thy head; for the LORD hath rejected them in whom thou didst trust, and thou shalt not prosper in them.

Lift up thine eyes unto the high hills, and see: where hast thou not been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy harlotries and with thy wickedness.

Will He bear grudge for ever? Will He keep it to the end?' Behold, thou hast spoken, but hast done evil things, and hast had thy way.

and yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto Me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD--

Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; I will not frown upon you; for I am merciful, saith the LORD, I will not bear grudge for ever.

Return, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am a lord unto you, and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion;

In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.'

Hark! upon the high hills is heard the suppliant weeping of the children of Israel; for that they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God.

Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings.--'Here we are, we are come unto Thee; for Thou art the LORD our God.

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 unto this day; and we have not hearkened to the voice of the LORD our God.'

For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: break up for you a fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

Set up a standard toward Zion; put yourselves under covert, stay not; 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 the LORD is not turned back from us.