Study Desk

"There is [confident] hope for your future," says the LORD; "Your children will come back to their own country.

"I have surely heard Ephraim (Israel) moaning and grieving, 'You have chastised me, and I was chastised, Like a bull unaccustomed to the yoke or an untrained calf; Bring me back that I may be restored, For You are the LORD my God.

"Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a darling and beloved child? For as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly still remember him. Therefore My affection is renewed and My heart longs for him; I will surely have mercy on him," says the LORD.

"Place for yourself road signs [toward Canaan], Make for yourself guideposts; Turn your thought and attention to the highway, To the way by which you went [into exile]. Retrace your steps, O virgin of Israel, Return to these your cities.

"How long will you hesitate [to return], O you faithless and renegade daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land [of Israel]: A woman will encompass (tenderly love) a man."

"For I [fully] satisfy the weary soul, and I replenish every languishing and sorrowful person."

"But everyone will die [only] for his own wickedness; every man who eats sour grapes—his [own] teeth shall be set on edge.

"And each man will no longer teach his neighbor and his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me [through personal experience], from the least of them to the greatest," says the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness, and I will no longer remember their sin."

Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and of the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea's roaring billows or stills the waves when they roar; The LORD of hosts is His name:

Thus says the LORD, "If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off and abandon all the descendants of Israel For all that they have done," says the LORD.

"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when the city [of Jerusalem] will be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

For Zedekiah [the last] king of Judah had locked him up, saying, "Why do you prophesy [disaster] and say, 'Thus says the LORD, "Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

and he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him [for evaluation and judgment]," says the LORD. "If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed"'?"

'Behold (listen carefully), Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying, "Buy my field that is in Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it [in accordance with the law]."'

"Then Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard in accordance with the word of the LORD, and he said to me, 'Please buy my field that is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin, for you have the right of inheritance and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

"I bought the field that was at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed out the money for him, seventeen shekels of silver.

'For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Houses and fields and vineyards will again be purchased in this land."'

'Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! There is nothing too difficult or too wonderful for You—

You who show lovingkindness to thousands, but repay the wickedness (sin, guilt) of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], O great and mighty God; the LORD of hosts is His name;

who set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day [continues to do so] both in Israel and among mankind; and You have made a name for Yourself, as at this day.