Study Desk

They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they will have no insight.

Thus says Yahweh to Cyrus His anointed,Whom I have taken hold of by his right hand,To subdue nations before himAnd to loose the loins of kings,To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:

I will give you the treasures of darknessAnd hidden wealth of secret places,So that you may know that it is I,Yahweh, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

So now says Yahweh, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,To return Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him(For I am glorified in the sight of Yahweh,And My God is My strength),

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

Your gates will be open continually;They will not be closed day or night,So that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations,With their kings led in procession.

"For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,And for the pastures of the wilderness a funeral lamentation,Because they are turned into ruin so that no one passes through,And the lowing of the cattle is not heard;Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

Who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished, turned into ruin like a desert, so that no one passes through?

And Yahweh said to me, "Call out all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant so that you will do them.

What possession has My beloved in My houseWhen she has done many schemes of wickedness?Can the flesh, which is set apart as holy, take away from you your calamity,So that you can exult?"

Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, "Do not prophesy in the name of Yahweh, so that you will not die at our hand";

Have You completely rejected Judah?Or have You loathed Zion?Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us?We hoped for peace, but there was no good;And for a time of healing, but behold, terror!

For I have heard the bad report of many,"Terror on every side!Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!"All my trusted friends,Keeping watch for my fall, say:"Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against himAnd take our revenge on him."

Because he did not put me to death from the womb,So that my mother would have been my grave,And her womb ever pregnant.

Why did I ever come forth from the wombTo look on trouble and sorrow,So that my days have been spent in shame?

"Please inquire of Yahweh on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is warring against us; perhaps Yahweh will deal with us according to all His wonderful acts, so that the enemy will go up from us."

Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen an appalling thing:The committing of adultery and walking in lying;And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,So that no one has turned back from his evil.All of them have become to Me like Sodom,And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

Therefore behold, I will surely forget you and abandon you, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers, so that you are out of My presence.

But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death.

Thus says Yahweh,Who gives the sun for light by dayAnd the statutes for the moon and the stars for light by night,Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar;Yahweh of hosts is His name: