Study Desk

Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to conquerors, because from the smallest to the greatest, all of them make profit for unlawful gain, from prophet to priest, all of them practice deceit.

Were they ashamed, for they had committed a detestable thing? What's worse, they were not ashamed at all, and they did not know to feel humiliated. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; at the time of their punishment they will stumble," says Yahweh.

Why are we sitting? Gather, and let us go into the fortified cities, and let us perish there, for Yahweh our God has caused us to perish, and has provided drink for us, water of poison, because we have sinned against Yahweh.

We hope for peace, but there is no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror.

"From Dan is heard the snorting of their horses, from the sound of the neighing of their stallions all the land quakes, for they come and devour the land, and that which fills the city, and those who live in it.

For look, I am letting loose among you snakes, adders for which there is no incantation, and they will bite you," declares Yahweh.

Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a distant land, ‘Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her king not in her?' Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with idols of a foreign land?"

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night, for the slain of the daughter of my people.

Oh that I had in the desert a place of overnight lodging for travelers, that I may leave my people and go from them, for all of them are adulterers, a band of traitors.

And they bend their tongue like their bow, for falsehood and not truth is superior in the land, for they go forth from evil to evil, and they do not know me," declares Yahweh.

"Let everyone be on your guard against his neighbor, and you must not trust in any brother, for everyone surely betrays, and every neighbor goes about with slander.

Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, I am about to refine them, and I will test them, for what else can I do, because of the presence of the daughter of my people?

For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the desert a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through. And the sounds of cattle are not heard, from the birds of heaven to the animals they have fled, they are gone.

Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Look, I am feeding this people wormwood, and providing drink for them, water of poison,

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Consider closely, and call for the wailing women, so that they come, and for the skillful women, so that they come.

For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion, ‘How we are devastated! We are very ashamed because we have left the land, because they have overthrown our dwelling places.'

For hear, O women, the word of Yahweh, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters a lamentation, and each woman her neighbor a lament.

For death has come into our windows, it has entered into our fortresses, to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the public squares.

But only in this must the one who boasts boast, that he has insight, and that he knows me, that I am Yahweh, showing loyal love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight," declares Yahweh.

Egypt, Judah, and Edom, and the Ammonites, and Moab, and all those who are trimmed to the side, those who live in the desert, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart."