Study Desk

The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased, He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, He has no regard for mankind.

But there the majestic One, the LORD, will be for us A place of rivers and wide canals On which no boat with oars will go, And on which no mighty ship will pass—

For the LORD is our judge, The LORD is our lawgiver, The LORD is our king; He will save us—

For the LORD'S anger is against all the nations, And His wrath against all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them, He has turned them over to slaughter.

For My sword has drunk its fill in heaven; Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom, And upon the people whom I have designated for destruction.

The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

For the LORD has a day of vengeance, A year of retribution for the cause of Zion.

Seek from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these will be missing; None will lack its mate. For His mouth has commanded, And His Spirit has gathered them.

He has cast the lot for them, And His hand has divided it to them by the measuring line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

The wilderness and the desert will rejoice, And the desert will shout for joy and blossom; Like the crocus

Then those who limp will leap like a deer, And the tongue of those who cannot speak will shout for joy. For waters will burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.

A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for the one who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it.

"I say, 'Your plan and strength for the war are only empty words.' Now on whom have you relied, that you have revolted against me?

"How then can you drive back even one official of the least of my master's servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Judean so that the people who are on the wall hear you."

"This is what the king says: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you;

'Do not listen to Hezekiah,' for this is what the king of Assyria says: 'Surrender to me and come out to me, and eat, each one, of his vine and each of his fig tree, and each drink of the waters of his own cistern,

But they were silent and did not answer him so much as a word; for the king's command was, "Do not answer him."

And they said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says: 'This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation; for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.

'Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to taunt the living God, and will avenge the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.'"