Study Desk

Instead, we will certainly continue to fulfill every word our mouths have spoken: we will offer incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our ancestors, our kings and our leaders, in the cities of Y'hudah and the streets of Yerushalayim. For then we had plenty of food; everything was fine, we didn't experience anything unpleasant.

[Then the wives added,] "Are we the ones who offer incense to the queen of heaven? Do we pour out drink offerings to her? And did we make cakes marked with her image for her and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands' consent?"

until Adonai could no longer bear it, so evil and so detestable were your deeds. This is why your land has become a wasteland, an object for astonishment and cursing, uninhabited, as it is today.

I am watching over them for harm, not for good. All the men of Y'hudah in the land of Egypt will be destroyed by sword and famine, until none of them is left.

Moreover, here is a sign for you,' says Adonai , ‘that I will punish you in this place, so that you can know that my threats of disaster against you will come true.'

Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don't! For I am bringing disaster on everything living,' says Adonai . ‘But wherever you go, you will escape with your life.'"

For on that day Adonai Elohei -Tzva'ot will have a day of vengeance for avenging himself on his enemies. The sword will destroy, have its fill, be made drunk on their blood. Yes, Adonai Elohei -Tzva'ot decrees slaughter in the land to the north by the Euphrates River.

Go up to Gil‘ad for its healing resin, virgin daughter of Egypt. You try many medicines, all in vain; for you there is no cure.

"Proclaim in Egypt, announce in Migdol, announce in Nof and Tachpanches; say: ‘Take your stand! Get ready! For all around you the sword is destroying.

They cried there, "Pharaoh king of Egypt makes noise, but he lets the right time [for action] slip by."

"Daughter living in Egypt, prepare what you need for exile; for Nof will become a ruin, laid waste, without inhabitant.

Her mercenaries too, that she had with her, were like well-fed calves in a stable; but they too have withdrawn in retreat, they all ran away without standing their ground. For their day of disaster has come over them, the time for them to be punished.

They cut down her forest," says Adonai , "for they cannot be numbered; yes, there are more of them than locusts, far too many to count.

"Yet don't be afraid, Ya‘akov my servant; don't be distressed, Isra'el. For I will save you from faraway places, and your offspring from the lands where they are held captive. Ya‘akov will return and be at peace, quiet, with no one to make him afraid.

Don't be afraid, Ya‘akov my servant," says Adonai , "for I am with you. I will finish off all the nations where I have scattered you. However, you I will not finish off, I will discipline you as you deserve, but not completely destroy you."

at the thunderous pound of his stallions' hoofs, at his rattling chariots' rumbling wheels. Fathers fail to turn back for their children; instead, their hands hang limp,

because the day has come for destroying all the P'lishtim, for cutting off from Tzor and Tzidon the last of their allies; for Adonai is destroying the P'lishtim, the remnant from the island of Kaftor.

But how can you be still? For Adonai has given it orders against Ashkelon, against the seacoast; he has assigned it its task there.

Concerning Mo'av, this is what Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "Woe to N'vo, for it is ravaged; Kiryatayim disgraced and captured. Misgav is put to shame, distressed.

Descend from your glory, and sit in thirst, daughter living in Divon; for Mo'av's destroyer advances on you; he has destroyed your strongholds.