Study Desk

The Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares: "I will gather yet others to them (Israel), to those [already] gathered."

"You were wearied by the length of your road, Yet you did not say, 'It is no use.' You found renewed strength, Therefore you did not grow weak.

"Yet they seek Me day by day and delight [superficially] to know My ways, As [if they were in reality] a nation that has done righteousness And has not abandoned (turned away from) the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgments, They delight in the nearness of God.

Yet, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our Potter, And we all are the work of Your hand.

"Yet I had planted you [O house of Israel as] a choice vine, A completely faithful seed. How then have you turned against Me Into degenerate shoots of a foreign and wild vine [alien to Me]?

"Can a virgin forget [to wear] her ornaments, Or a bride her attire [that identifies her as a married woman]? Yet My people have forgotten Me Days without number.

Yet you keep saying, 'I am innocent; Surely His anger has turned away from me.' Behold (listen very carefully), I will bring you to judgment and will plead my case against you Because you say, 'I have not sinned.'

That is to say, "If a man divorces his wife And she goes [away] from him And becomes another man's [wife], Will he return to her again? [Of course not!] Will not that land [where such a thing happened] be completely desecrated? But you [rebelled against Me and you] are a prostitute with many lovers; Yet you turn to Me." says the LORD.

"Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no spring rain. Yet you have the forehead (appearance) of a prostitute; You refuse to be ashamed.

"And I saw [that even though Judah knew] that for all the acts of adultery (idolatry) of faithless Israel, I [the LORD] had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid; but she went and was a prostitute also [following after idols].

"Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with her whole heart, but rather in [blatant] deception [she merely pretended obedience to King Josiah's reforms]," declares the LORD.

Therefore says the LORD, "The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not cause total destruction.

'Do you not fear Me?' says the LORD. 'Do you not tremble [in awe] in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, An eternal decree and a perpetual barrier beyond which it cannot pass. Though the waves [of the sea] toss and break, yet they cannot prevail [against the sand ordained to hold them back]; Though the waves and the billows roar, yet they cannot cross over [the barrier]. [Is not such a God to be feared?]

"Yet they did not listen to Me and obey Me or bend their ear [to hear Me], but stiffened their neck; they did more evil and behaved worse than their fathers.

"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised [physically] and yet uncircumcised [spiritually]—

'Yet they did not obey or incline their ear [to listen to Me], but everyone walked in the stubborn way of his [own] evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all [the suffering threatened in] the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.'"

You, O LORD are [uncompromisingly] righteous and consistently just when I plead my case with You; Yet let me discuss issues of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are those who deal in treachery (deceit) at ease and thriving?

"Why should You be [hesitant and inactive] like a man astounded and perplexed, Like a mighty man unable to save? Yet You, O LORD, are among us, And we are called by Your name; Do not leave us!"

"Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the [false] prophets who are prophesying in My Name, although I did not send them—yet they keep saying, 'Sword and famine shall not be in this land': by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end and be consumed.

Woe to me, my mother, that you have given birth to me To be a man of strife and a man of contention to all the earth! I have not loaned, nor have men lent money to me, Yet everyone curses me.