Study Desk

The oracle of the word of Yahweh is against the land of Hadrach, with Damascus as its resting place (for the eyes of men, especially of all the tribes of Israel, are toward Yahweh),

Ashkelon will see it and be afraid.Gaza too will writhe in great pain;Also Ekron, for her hope has been put to shame.Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza,And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

And I will remove their blood from their mouthAnd their detestable things from between their teeth.Then they also will be a remnant for our God,And be like a clan in Judah,And Ekron like a Jebusite.

But I will camp around My house because of an army,Because of him who passes by and returns;And no taskmaster will pass over them anymore,For now I have seen with My eyes.

As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant,I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

For I will bend Judah as My bow;I will fill the bow with Ephraim.And I will rouse up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece;And I will make you like a mighty man's sword.

And Yahweh their God will save them in that dayAs the flock of His people;For they are as the stones of a crown,Sparkling in His land.

For what goodness and what beauty will be theirs!Grain will make the choice men flourish, and new wine the virgins.

For the teraphim speak wickedness,And the diviners behold false visionsAnd speak worthless dreams;They comfort in vain.Therefore the people journey like sheep;They are afflicted because there is no shepherd.

"My anger burns against the shepherds,And I will visit punishment upon the male goats;For Yahweh of hosts has visited His flock, the house of Judah,And will make them like His splendid horse in battle.

And they will be as mighty men,Treading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle;And they will battle, for Yahweh will be with them;And the riders on horses will be put to shame.

I will make the house of Judah mighty,And I will save the house of Joseph,And I will cause them to return,Because I have had compassion on them;And they will be as though I had not rejected them,For I am Yahweh their God, and I will answer them.

I will whistle for them to gather them together,For I have redeemed them;And they will be as numerous as they were before.

Then I will cause them to return from the land of EgyptAnd gather them from Assyria;And I will bring them into the land of Gilead and LebanonUntil no room can be found for them.

Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,Because the mighty trees have been destroyed;Wail, O oaks of Bashan,For the impenetrable forest has come down.

There is a sound of the shepherds' wail,For their might is destroyed;There is a sound of the young lions' roar,For the pride of the Jordan is destroyed.

For I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the land," declares Yahweh; "but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another's hand and into the hand of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand."

So I shepherded the flock doomed to slaughter—hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor, and the other I called Union; so I shepherded the flock.

Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me.

Then Yahweh said to me, "Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd.