Study Desk

For the LORD is our Judge, The LORD is our Ruler, The LORD is our King; He will save us.

For the LORD is angry at all the nations, And His wrath is against all their armies; He has utterly doomed them, He has given them over to slaughter.

For My sword is satiated [with blood] in heaven; Indeed, it will come down for judgment on Edom And on the people whom I have doomed for destruction.

The sword of the LORD is filled with blood [from sacrifices], 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 (Edom's capital city) 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.

Thorns will come up in its fortified palaces, Nettles and brambles in its fortified cities; It will be a haunt for jackals, An abode for ostriches.

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

The LORD has cast the lot for them, And His hand has divided and apportioned Edom to the wild beasts by measuring-line. They will possess it forever; From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

Say to those with an anxious and panic-stricken heart, "Be strong, fear not! Indeed, your God will come with vengeance [for the ungodly]; The retribution of God will come, But He will save you."

Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the desert.

A highway will be there, and a roadway; And it will be called the Holy Way. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for those who walk on the way [the redeemed]; And fools will not wander on it.

Then the Rabshakeh said to them, "Say to Hezekiah, 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says, "What is [the reason for] this confidence that you have?

"I say, 'Your plan and strength for the war are only empty words.' Now in whom do you trust and on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?

"How then can you repulse [the attack of] a single commander of the least of my master's servants, and rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

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

'Do not listen to Hezekiah,' for this is what the king of Assyria says, 'Make peace with me and come out to me, and each one of you will eat from his own vine and each from his own fig tree and each [one of you] drink from the water of his own cistern,

But they kept silent and did not say a word to him in reply, for King Hezekiah's command was, "Do not answer him."

They said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says, 'This day is a day of distress, rebuke and disgrace; for children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.

'It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh [the commander], whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to taunt and defy the living God, and will avenge the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant [of His people] that is left.'"

So the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah [a fortified city of Judah], for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.