Study Desk

Do not go out into the field, And do not walk on the road; For the enemy has a sword, Terror is on every side.

Daughter of my people, put on sackcloth And roll in ashes; Mourn as for an only son, A most bitter mourning. For suddenly the destroyer Will come against us.

"For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a person and his neighbor,

"As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not plead with Me; for I am not listening to you.

"The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke Me to anger.

"For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

"But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may go well for you.'

'Cut off your hair and throw it away, And take up a song of mourning on the bare heights; For the LORD has rejected and forsaken The generation of His wrath.'

"For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight," declares the LORD. "They have put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.

"Therefore, behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place.

"The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.

"Then I will eliminate from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a site of ruins.

"Therefore I will give their wives to others, Their fields to new owners; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is greedy for gain; From the prophet even to the priest, Everyone practices deceit.

Why are we sitting still? Assemble yourselves, and let's go into the fortified cities And perish there, For the LORD our God has doomed us And given us poisoned water to drink, Because we have sinned against the LORD.

We waited for peace, but no good came; For a time of healing, but behold, terror!

From Dan there is heard the snorting of his horses; At the sound of the neighing of his stallions The whole land quakes; For they come and devour the land and its fullness, The city and its inhabitants.

"For behold, I am sending serpents among you, Vipers for which there is no charm; And they will bite you," declares the LORD.

Oh, that my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For those slain of the daughter of my people!

Oh that I had in the desert A travelers' lodging place; So that I might leave my people And go away from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous people.

"They bend their tongues like their bows; Lies and not truth prevail in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me," declares the LORD.