Study Desk

For just as the earth brings forth its plants, or a garden makes its plants spring up, so Adonai , God, will cause victory and glory to spring up before all nations.

Adonai has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: "Never again will I give your grain to your enemies as food; nor will strangers drink your wine, for which you worked so hard;

Who is this, coming from Edom, from Botzrah with clothing stained crimson, so magnificently dressed, so stately in his great strength? "It is I, who speak victoriously, I, well able to save."

"I have trodden the winepress alone; from the peoples, not one was with me. So I trod them in my anger, trampled them in my fury; so their lifeblood spurted out on my clothing, and I have stained all my garments;

For he said, "They are indeed my people, children who are not disloyal." So he became their Savior.

However, they rebelled, they grieved his Holy Spirit; so he became their enemy and himself fought against them.

Adonai , why do you let us wander from your ways and harden our hearts, so that we do not fear you? Return, for the sake of your servants, the tribes who are your possession.

For so long we have been like those you never ruled, like those who were not called by your name! We wish you would tear open heaven and come down, so the mountains would shake at your presence!

When you did tremendous things that we were not expecting, we wished that you would come down, so that the mountains would shake at your presence!

Do not be so very angry, Adonai ! Don't remember crime forever. Look, please, we are all your people.

class="poetry"> It would be like fire kindling the brush, and the fire then makes the water boil. Then your enemies would know your name, the nations would tremble before you! When you did tremendous things that we were not expecting, we wished that you would come down, so that the mountains would shake at your presence! No one has ever heard, no ear perceived, no eye seen, any God but you. You work for him who waits for you. You favored those who were glad to do justice, those who remembered you in your ways. When you were angry, we kept sinning; but if we keep your ancient ways, we will be saved. All of us are like someone unclean, all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags; we wither, all of us, like leaves; and our misdeeds blow us away like the wind. No one calls on your name or bestirs himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and caused our misdeeds to destroy us. But now, Adonai , you are our father; we are the clay, you are our potter; and we are all the work of your hands. Do not be so very angry, Adonai ! Don't remember crime forever. Look, please, we are all your people. Your holy cities have become a desert, Tziyon a desert, Yerushalayim a ruin. Our holy, beautiful house, where our ancestors used to praise you, has been burned to the ground; all we cherished has been ruined. Adonai , after all this, will you still hold back? Will you still stay silent and punish us past endurance?

Here is what Adonai says: "As when juice is found in a cluster of grapes, and people say, ‘Don't destroy it, there is still some good in it,' so I will do likewise for the sake of my servants, and not destroy them all.

So be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for look! I am making Yerushalayim a joy, and her people a delight.

so I will enjoy making fools of them, and bring on them the very things they fear. For when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they did not hear. Instead they did what was evil in my sight and chose what did not please me."

Hear the word of Adonai , you who tremble at his word: "Your brothers, who hate you and reject you because of my name, have said: ‘Let Adonai be glorified, so we can see your joy.' But they will be put to shame."

so that you nurse and are satisfied by her comforting breast, drinking deeply and delighting in the overflow of her glory.

"For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making will continue in my presence," says Adonai , "so will your descendants and your name continue.

here is what Adonai says: "What did your ancestors find wrong with me to make them go so far away from me, to make them go after nothings and become themselves nothings?

"So again I state my case against you," says Adonai , "and state it against your grandchildren too.

Just as a thief is ashamed when caught, so is the house of Isra'el ashamed — they, their kings, their leaders, their cohanim and their prophets,