Study Desk

Open your doors, Lebanon, So that a ^(C1)fire may feed on your ^(C2)cedars.

Wail, juniper, because the cedar has fallen, For the magnificent trees have been destroyed; Wail, oaks of Bashan, Because the ^(F1)impenetrable forest has come down.

There is a sound of the shepherds' ^(C1)wail, For their splendor is ruined; There is a ^(C2)sound of the young lions' roar, For the ^(F1)pride of the Jordan is ruined.

This is what the LORD my God says: "Pasture the flock doomed to ^(C1)slaughter.

"Those who buy them slaughter them and ^(F1)go ^(C1)unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, 'Blessed be the LORD, for ^(C2)I have become rich!' And their ^(C3)own shepherds have no compassion for them.

"For I will ^(C1)no longer have compassion for the inhabitants of the land," declares the LORD; "but behold, I will ^(C2)let the people fall, each into another's ^(F1)power and into the ^(F1)power of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will ^(C3)not rescue them from their ^(F1)power."

So I ^(C1)pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, ^(F1)therefore also the ^(C2)afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two ^(C3)staffs: the one I called ^(F2)(C4)Favor, and the other I called ^(C5)Union; so I pastured the flock.

Then I did away with the three shepherds in ^(C1)one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also ^(F1)was tired of me.

Then I said, "I will not pasture you. What is to ^(C1)die, ^(F1)let it die, and what is to perish, ^(F2)let it perish; and ^(F3)let those who are left eat one another's flesh."

And I took my staff ^(F1)(C1)Favor and cut it in pieces, to ^(F2)(C2)break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

So it was ^(F1)broken on that day, and ^(F2)so the ^(C1)afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD.

And I said to them, "If it is good in your sight, give me my ^(C1)wages; but if not, ^(F1)never mind!" So they weighed out ^(C2)thirty shekels of silver as my wages.

Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the ^(C1)potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them." So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

Then I cut in pieces my second staff ^(C1)Union, to ^(C2)break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

And the LORD said to me, "Take again for yourself the equipment of a ^(C1)foolish shepherd.

"For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will ^(C1)not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or provide for the one who is exhausted, but will ^(C2)devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

-"^(C1)Woe to the worthless shepherd Who abandons the flock! A ^(C2)sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His ^(C3)arm will be totally withered, And his right eye will be ^(F1)blind."

The pronouncement of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: The LORD who ^(C1)stretches out the heavens, ^(C2)lays the foundation of the earth, and ^(C3)forms the spirit of a person within him, declares:

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"Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a ^(C1)cup ^(F1)that causes staggering to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against ^(C2)Judah.

"It will come about on that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy ^(C1)stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will ^(C2)injure themselves severely. And all the ^(C3)nations of the earth will be gathered against it.

"On that day," declares the LORD, "I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with insanity. But I will ^(F1)watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.

"Then the ^(F1)clans of Judah will say in their hearts, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a ^(F2)strong support for us through the LORD of armies, their God.'

"On that day I will make the ^(F1)clans of Judah like a ^(C1)firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while ^(F2)the ^(C2)inhabitants of Jerusalem again live on their own sites in Jerusalem.

"The LORD also will ^(C1)save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of ^(C2)David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be greater than Judah.

"On that day the LORD will ^(C1)protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who ^(F1)(C2)is feeble among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like ^(C3)God, like the ^(C4)angel of the LORD before them.

"And on that day I will ^(C1)seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

"And I will ^(C1)pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem ^(F1)the Spirit of grace and of pleading, so that they will look at Me whom they ^(C2)pierced; and they will mourn for Him, like one ^(C3)mourning for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

"On that day the ^(C1)mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the ^(F1)plain of ^(F2)Megiddo.

"The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves;

the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves;

all the families that are left, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.