Study Desk

Your prophets have seen (imagined) for you False and foolish visions; And they have not exposed your wickedness To restore you from captivity [by teaching you to repent], But they have seen (imagined) and declared to you false and misleading oracles.

All your enemies Have opened their mouths wide against you; They [scornfully] hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, "We have swallowed her up! Certainly this is the day for which we waited; We have reached it, we have seen it!"

"Arise, cry aloud in the night, At the beginning of the night watches; Pour out your heart like water Before the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to Him For the life of your little ones Who are faint from hunger At the head of every street."

You [LORD] called as in the day of an appointed feast My terrors (dangers) on every side; And there was no one who escaped or survived In the day of the LORD'S anger. Those I have cared for and brought up with tenderness, My enemy annihilated them.

Even when I cry out and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.

He has bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.

"The LORD is my portion and my inheritance," says my soul; "Therefore I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him."

The LORD is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him, To those who seek Him [on the authority of God's word].

It is good that one waits quietly For the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke [of godly discipline] in his youth.

Let him sit alone [in hope] and keep quiet, Because God has laid it on him [for his benefit].

For the Lord will not reject forever,

For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness and tender mercy.

For He does not afflict willingly and from His heart Or grieve the children of men.

You have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help."

The tongue of the infant clings To the roof of its mouth because of thirst; The little ones ask for food, But no one gives it to them.

For the [punishment of the] wickedness of the daughter of my people [Jerusalem] Is greater than the [punishment for the] sin of Sodom, Which was overthrown in a moment, And no hands were turned toward her [to offer help].

Those killed with the sword Are more fortunate than those killed with hunger; For the hungry pine and ebb away, For the lack of the fruits of the field.

The hands of compassionate women Boiled their own children; They became food for them Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people [Judah].

[And as for us,] yet our eyes failed, Looking in vain for help. Watching [from the towers] we watched For a nation that could not save.