Study Desk

Should good be repaid with evil?For they have dug a pit for me.Remember how I stood before YouTo speak good on their behalf,So as to turn away Your wrath from them.

May an outcry be heard from their houses,When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;For they have dug a pit to capture meAnd hidden snares for my feet.

Yet You, O Yahweh, knowAll their deadly counsel against me;Do not atone for their iniquityOr blot out their sin from before You.But may they be overthrown before You;Deal with them in the time of Your anger!

I will empty out the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem to the point of destruction in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial.

For thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will give over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take them away into exile to Babylon and will strike them down with the sword.

For each time I speak, I cry aloud;I call out violence and devastationBecause for me the word of Yahweh has resultedIn reproach and derision all day long.

For I have heard the bad report of many,"Terror on every side!Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!"All my trusted friends,Keeping watch for my fall, say:"Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against himAnd take our revenge on him."

Yet, O Yahweh of hosts, You who test the righteous,Who see the mind and the heart;Let me see Your vengeance on them,For to You I have revealed my cause.

Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh!For He has delivered the soul of the needy oneFrom the hand of evildoers.

"Please inquire of Yahweh on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is warring against us; perhaps Yahweh will deal with us according to all His wonderful acts, so that the enemy will go up from us."

For I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good," declares Yahweh. "It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire."'

For if you men will indeed do this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting for David on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people.

For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah:"You are like Gilead to Me,Like the summit of Lebanon;Yet most assuredly I will make you like a wilderness,Like cities which are not inhabited.

For I will set apart destroyers against you,Each with his weapons;And they will cut down your choicest cedarsAnd throw them on the fire.

Do not weep for the dead or console him,But weep continually for the one who goes away,For he will never returnOr see the land of his birth.

For thus says Yahweh in regard to Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place, "He will never return there;

Therefore thus says Yahweh in regard to Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,"They will not lament for him:‘Alas, my brother!' or, ‘Alas, sister!'They will not lament for him:‘Alas for the master!' or, ‘Alas for his splendor!'

Go up to Lebanon and cry out,And lift up your voice in Bashan;Cry out also from Abarim,For all your lovers have been broken.

But as for the land to which their soul desires to return, they will not return to it.