Study Desk

A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction.

If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he--

In the day of prosperity be joyful, But in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, So that man can find out nothing that will come after him.

For I considered all this in my heart, so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. People know neither love nor hatred by anything they see before them.

For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, So that it will not be a people.

The burden against Tyre. Wail, you ships of Tarshish!For it is laid waste,So that there is no house, no harbor;From the land of Cyprus [fn] it is revealed to them.

The city of confusion is broken down; Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.

They do not know nor understand; For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, And their hearts, so that they cannot understand.

"Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held-- To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut:

And you said, "I shall be a lady forever,' So that you did not take these things to heart, Nor remember the latter end of them.

"For My name's sake I will defer My anger, And for My praise I will restrain it from you, So that I do not cut you off.

"And now the Lord says,Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,To bring Jacob back to Him,So that Israel is gathered to Him [fn] (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,And My God shall be My strength),

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

"Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, So that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, A joy of many generations.

So that he who blesses himself in the earth Shall bless himself in the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Shall swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My eyes.

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, And take away the foreskins of your hearts, You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My fury come forth like fire, And burn so that no one can quench it, Because of the evil of your doings."

I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation, Because they are burned up, So that no one can pass through; Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled; They are gone.

Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not topple.

Have You utterly rejected Judah? Has Your soul loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but there was no good; And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.