Study Desk

For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,Because they are filled with influences from the east,And they are soothsayers like the Philistines,And they strike bargains with the children of foreigners.

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,Because their tongue and their deeds are against Yahweh,To rebel against His glorious presence.

Moreover, Yahweh said, "Because the daughters of Zion are haughtyAnd walk with outstretched necks and seductive eyes,And go along with mincing stepsAnd tinkle the bangles on their feet,

and say to him, ‘Take care and stay quiet, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the burning anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.

Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has counseled evil against you, saying,

and because of the abundance of the milk produced, he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat curds and honey.

People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns.

To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

So it will be in that day, that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.

You will not be united with them in burial,Because you have ruined your country,You have killed your people.May the seed of evildoers not be called upon forever.

"Do not be glad, O Philistia, all of you,Because the rod that struck you is broken;For from the serpent's root a viper will come out,And its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.

In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which He is going to wave over them.

And the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the counsel of Yahweh of hosts which He is counseling against them.

And it will become a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them.

Then they will be dismayed and ashamed because of Ethiopia their hope and Egypt their boast.

Because you have said, "We have cut a covenant with death,And with Sheol we have made a pact.The overflowing scourge will not reach us when it passes by,For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have hidden ourselves with lying."

Then the Lord said,"Because this people draw near with their mouthAnd honor Me with their lips,But they remove their hearts far from Me,And their fear of Me is in the command of men learned by rote,

Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach."

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for helpAnd rely on horses,And trust in chariots because they are manyAnd in horsemen because they are very mighty,But they do not regard at the Holy One of Israel, nor seek Yahweh!

"His rock will pass away because of terror,And his princes will be dismayed at the standard,"Declares Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.