Study Desk

Israel is the vineyard of the Lord Almighty; the people of Judah are the vines he planted. He expected them to do what was good, but instead they committed murder. He expected them to do what was right, but their victims cried out for justice.

At your feasts you have harps and tambourines and flutes—and wine. But you don't understand what the Lord is doing,

But the Lord Almighty shows his greatness by doing what is right, and he reveals his holiness by judging his people.

But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you keep the innocent from getting justice.

The Lord is angry with his people and has stretched out his hand to punish them. The mountains will shake, and the bodies of those who die will be left in the streets like rubbish. Yet even then the Lord 's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

When King Ahaz, the son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, ruled Judah, war broke out. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, attacked Jerusalem, but were unable to capture it.

"But I, the Lord , declare that this will never happen.

Gather together in fear, you nations! Listen, you distant parts of the earth. Get ready to fight, but be afraid! Yes, get ready, but be afraid!

Make your plans! But they will never succeed. Talk all you want to! But it is all useless, because God is with us.

The Lord has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him.

But people will tell you to ask for messages from fortunetellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, "After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living."

or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven.

There will be no way for them to escape from this time of trouble. The land of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali was once disgraced, but the future will bring honor to this region, from the Mediterranean eastward to the land on the other side of the Jordan, and even to Galilee itself, where the foreigners live.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows, but now light is shining on them.

"The brick buildings have fallen down, but we will replace them with stone buildings. The beams of sycamore wood have been cut down, but we will replace them with the finest cedar."

And so the Lord will not let any of the young men escape, and he will not show pity on any of the widows and orphans, because all the people are godless and wicked and everything they say is evil. Yet even so the Lord 's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

Everywhere in the country people snatch and eat any bit of food they can find, but their hunger is never satisfied. They even eat their own children!

But the Assyrian emperor has his own violent plans in mind. He is determined to destroy many nations.

But the Lord says, "When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride."

But the Lord says, "Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn't lift up a person; a person lifts up a club."