Study Desk

Yet she became an exile, She went into captivity; Also her small children were smashed to pieces At the head of every street; They cast lots for her honorable men, And all her great men were bound with shackles.

You too will become drunk, You will be hidden. You too will search for a refuge from the enemy.

Draw for yourself water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!

There is no relief for your collapse, Your wound is incurable. All who hear about you Will clap their hands over you, For upon whom has your evil not come continually?

How long, LORD, have I called for help, And You do not hear? I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet You do not save.

Therefore the Law is ignored, And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out confused.

"Look among the nations! Watch! Be horrified! Be frightened speechless! For I am accomplishing a work in your days— You would not believe it even if you were told!

"For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That grim and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth, To take possession of dwelling places that are not theirs.

"All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They gather captives like sand.

"For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hurries toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it delays, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay long.

"Behold, as for the impudent one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous one will live by his faith.

"Will all of these not take up a song of ridicule against him, Even a saying and insinuations against him And say, 'Woe to him who increases what is not his— For how long— And makes himself rich with debts!'

"Will your creditors not rise up suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them.

"Woe to him who makes evil profit for his household, To put his nest on high, To be saved from the hand of catastrophe!

"You have planned a shameful thing for your house By bringing many peoples to an end; So you are sinning against yourself.

"For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the rafter will answer it from the framework.

"Is it not indeed from the LORD of armies That peoples labor merely for fire, And nations become weary for nothing?

"For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea.

"For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, And the devastation of its animals by which you terrified them, Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants.

"What benefit is a carved image when its maker has carved it, Or a cast metal image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols.