Study Desk

Now Jacob (Israel) fled into the open country of Aram (Paddan-aram), And [there] Israel (Jacob) worked and served for a wife, And for a wife he kept sheep.

And now they sin more and more, And make for themselves molten images, Idols skillfully made from their silver [as it pleased them], All of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of these [very works of their hands], "Let those who sacrifice kiss and show respect to the calves [as if they were living gods]!"

Yet I have been the LORD your God Since [the time you became a nation in] the land of Egypt; And you were not to know any god except Me, For there is no savior besides Me.

I knew and regarded you and cared for you in the wilderness, In the land of drought.

The wickedness of Ephraim [which is not yet completely punished] is bound up [as in a bag]; His sin is stored up [for judgment and destruction].

The pains of childbirth come on him; But he is not a wise son, For it is not the time to delay [his chance at a new birth] as the womb opens [but he ignores the opportunity to change].

For though he flourishes among the reeds (his fellow tribes), An east wind (Assyria) will come, The breath of the LORD rising from the desert; And Ephraim's spring will become dry And his fountain will be dried up. Assyria will plunder his treasury of every precious object.

O Israel, return [in repentance] to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled and fallen [visited by tragedy], because of your sin.

"Assyria will not save us; We will not ride on horses [relying on military might], Nor will we say again to [the idols who are] the work of our hands, 'You are our gods.' For in You [O LORD] the orphan finds love and compassion and mercy."

I will heal their apostasy and faithlessness; I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from Israel.

O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who have answered and will care for you and watch over you. I am like a luxuriant cypress tree; With Me your fruit is found [which is to nourish you].

Whoever is [spiritually] wise, let him understand these things; Whoever is [spiritually] discerning and understanding, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, And the righteous will walk in them, But transgressors will stumble and fall in them.

For a [pagan and hostile] nation has invaded My land [like locusts], Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness.

Wail like a virgin [bride] clothed with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth [who has died].

The field is ruined, The ground mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine is dried up, The fresh oil fails.

Be ashamed, O farmers; Wail, O vinedressers, For the wheat and for the barley, Because the harvest of the field has perished.

Clothe yourselves with sackcloth And lament (cry out in grief), O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth [and pray without ceasing], O ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.

Alas for the day! For the [judgment] day of the LORD is at hand, And it will come [upon the nation] as a destruction from the Almighty.

O LORD, I cry out to You, For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

Even the wild animals pant [in longing] for You; For the water brooks are dried up And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.