Study Desk

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

"But as for the land to which they long to return, they will not return to it.

"This is what the LORD says: 'Write this man down as childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man among his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.'"

Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: "You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not been concerned about them; behold, I am going to call you to account for the evil of your deeds," declares the LORD.

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land.

As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, All my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, And like a man overcome by wine, Because of the LORD And because of His holy words.

For the land is full of adulterers; For the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course is evil And their might is not right.

"For both prophet and priest are defiled; Even in My house I have found their wickedness," declares the LORD.

"Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it; For I will bring disaster upon them, The year of their punishment," declares the LORD.

"Therefore this is what the LORD of armies says concerning the prophets: 'Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood And make them drink poisonous water, For from the prophets of Jerusalem Ungodliness has spread into all the land.'"

"They keep saying to those who despise Me, 'The LORD has said, "You will have peace"'; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, 'Disaster will not come on you.'

"Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, 'The pronouncement of the LORD,' I will bring punishment upon that person and his household.

"For you will no longer remember the pronouncement of the LORD, because every person's own word will become the pronouncement, and you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of armies, our God.

"And if you say, 'The pronouncement of the LORD!' for that reason the LORD says this: 'Because you said this word, "The pronouncement of the LORD!" I have also sent word to you, saying, "You shall not say, 'The pronouncement of the LORD!'"'

'For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not uproot them.

'I will also give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me wholeheartedly.

'I will make them an object of terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a disgrace and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all the places where I will scatter them.

'This entire land will be a place of ruins and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

'Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,' declares the LORD, 'for their wrongdoing, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.

'(For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)'"