Study Desk

A wind too strong for this shall come for Me; now will I also utter judgments against them.

Behold, he cometh up as clouds, and his chariots are as the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles.--'Woe unto us! for we are undone.'--

For hark! one declareth from Dan, and announceth calamity from the hills of Ephraim:

Destruction followeth upon destruction, for the whole land is spoiled; suddenly are my tents spoiled, my curtains in a moment.

For My people is foolish, they know Me not; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

For thus saith the LORD: The whole land shall be desolate; 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.

For the noise of the horsemen and bowmen the whole city fleeth; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks; every city is forsaken, and not a man dwelleth therein.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath, that spreadeth her hands: 'Woe is me, now! for my soul fainteth before the murderers.'

And I said: 'Surely these are poor, they are foolish, for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the ordinance of their God;

I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they know the way of the LORD, and the ordinance of their God.' But these had altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bands.

Shall I not punish for these things? saith the LORD; and shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Go ye up into her rows, and destroy, but make not a full end; take away her shoots; for they are not the LORD'S.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against Me, saith the LORD.

Fear ye not Me? saith the LORD; will ye not tremble at My presence? who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it cannot pass; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.

Neither say they in their heart: 'Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth the former rain, and the latter in due season; that keepeth for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.'

For among My people are found wicked men; they pry, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.

Shall I not punish for these things? saith the LORD; shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Put yourselves under covert, ye children of Benjamin, away from the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the horn in Tekoa, and set up a signal on Beth-cherem; for evil looketh forth from the north, and a great destruction.

'Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon!' 'Woe unto us! for the day declineth, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out!'