Study Desk

On that day,' declares Yahweh, ‘I will strike every horse with confusion, and the one riding it with madness; but over the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, and I will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.

but he will say, "I am not a prophet; I am a tiller of the soil, for a man has acquired me since my youth."

I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, and they will loot the houses, and the women will be raped; half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be cut off from the city.

All the land will be transformed into a desert plateau from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But it will rise up high and it will stay in its place from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, up to the Corner Gate and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.

"I have loved you," says Yahweh, but you say, "How have you loved us?" "Is Esau not Jacob's brother?" declares Yahweh. "I have loved Jacob,

but Esau I have hated. I have made his mountain ranges a desolation, and given his inheritance to the jackals of the desert."

If Edom says, "We are shattered, but we will return and rebuild the ruins," Yahweh of hosts says this: "They may build, but I will tear down; and they will be called a territory of wickedness, and the people with whom Yahweh is angry forever."

"A son honors his father, and a slave his master; but if I am a father, where is my honor, and if I am a master, where is my reverence?" says Yahweh of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. "But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?'

You are presenting defiled food on my altar! But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?' By saying that the table of Yahweh is despised!

"But you are profaning it by saying the table of the Lord is defiled, and its fruit—its food—is despised!

"Cursed is the one who cheats, who has in his flock a male and vows it, but instead sacrifices a blemished one to the Lord! For I am a great king," says Yahweh of hosts, "and my name is awesome among the nations."

But you, you have turned from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have ruined the covenant of Levi," says Yahweh of hosts.

"And in turn I have made you despised and humbled before all the people, inasmuch as you are not keeping my way, but are favoring your own instruction."

But you ask, "For what reason?" Because Yahweh stands as a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have been unfaithful, even though she is your marriage partner and your wife by covenant.

Did not one God make them? But a remnant of the spirit is his. And what does the one God desire? An offspring of God. You must be attentive to your spirit, and you must not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

You have wearied Yahweh with your words, but you ask, "With what have we wearied him?" You have done so when you say, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yahweh, and in them he delights," or "Where is the God of justice?"

From the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my rules, and have not kept them! Return to me and I will return to you," says Yahweh of hosts, "but you say, ‘How shall we return?'

"Your words have been harsh against me," says Yahweh. "But you say, ‘How have we spoken together against you?'

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like fattened calves.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ occurred in this way. His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit.