Study Desk

For I have trodden for Me Judah, A bow I have filled [with] Ephraim, And I have stirred up thy sons, O Zion, Against thy sons, O Javan, And I have set thee as the sword of a hero.

And Jehovah doth appear for them, And gone forth as lightning hath His arrow, And the Lord Jehovah with a trumpet bloweth, And He hath gone with whirlwinds of the south.

And saved them hath Jehovah their God In that day, as a flock of His people, For stones of a crown are displaying themselves over His ground.

For what His goodness! and what His beauty! Corn the young men, And new wine the virgins -- make fruitful!

Because the teraphim did speak iniquity, And the diviners have seen a falsehood, And dreams of the vanity they speak, [With] vanity they give comfort, Therefore they have journeyed as a flock, They are afflicted, for there is no shepherd.

Against the shepherds did Mine anger burn, And against the he-goats I lay a charge, For inspected hath Jehovah of Hosts His flock, the house of Judah, And set them as His beauteous horse in battle.

And they have been as heroes, Treading in mire of out-places in battle, And they have fought, for Jehovah [is] with them, And have put to shame riders of horses.

And I have made mighty the house of Judah, And the house of Joseph I do save, And I have caused them to dwell, for I have loved them, And they have been as [if] I had not cast them off, For I [am] Jehovah their God, And I answer them.

I hist for them, and I gather them, For I have redeemed them, And they have multiplied as they did multiply.

And I have brought them back from the land of Egypt, And from Asshur I do gather them, And unto the land of Gilead and Lebanon I do bring them in, And there is not found for them [space].

Howl, O fir, for fallen hath the cedar, For their honourable ones were destroyed, Howl, ye oaks of Bashan, For come down hath the fenced forest,

A voice of the howling of the shepherds! For destroyed was their robe of honour, A voice of the roaring of young lions! For destroyed was the excellency of Jordan.

For I have pity no more on inhabitants of the land, An affirmation of Jehovah, And lo, I am causing man to come forth, Each into the hand of his neighbour, And into the hand of his king, And they have beaten down the land, And I do not deliver out of their hand.'

For lo, I am raising up a shepherd in the land, The cut off he doth not inspect, The shaken off he doth not seek, And the broken he doth not heal, The standing he doth not sustain, And the flesh of the fat he doth eat, And their hoofs he doth break off.

And I have poured on the house of David, And on the inhabitant of Jerusalem, A spirit of grace and supplications, And they have looked unto Me whom they pierced, And they have mourned over it, Like a mourning over the only one, And they have been in bitterness for it, Like a bitterness over the first-born.

In that day there is a fountain opened To the house of David And to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, For sin and for impurity.

And it hath been, when one prophesieth again, That said unto him have his father and his mother, his parents, `Thou dost not live, For falsehood thou hast spoken in the name of Jehovah,' And pierced him through have his father and his mother, his parents, in his prophesying.

And [one] hath said, `I am not a prophet, A man, a tiller of ground I am, For ground [is] my possession from my youth.'

And ye have fled [to] the valley of My mountains, For join doth the valley of the mountains to Azal, And ye have fled as ye fled before the shaking, In the days of Uzziah king of Judah, And come in hath Jehovah my God, All holy ones [are] with Thee.

Is not Esau Jacob's brother? -- an affirmation of Jehovah, And I love Jacob, and Esau I have hated, And I make his mountains a desolation, And his inheritance for dragons of a wilderness.