Study Desk

For you shall go out in joy, and you shall be led in peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you, rejoicing and all the trees of the field shall clap hands.

Instead of the thorn bush, the juniper shall go up; instead of the brier, the myrtle shall go up, and it shall serve as a memorial to Yahweh, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

Thus says Yahweh: "Observe justice and do righteousness, for my salvation is close to coming, and my justice to being revealed.

For thus says Yahweh, "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose that in which I delight, and who keep hold of my covenant.

I will bring them to my holy mountain; I will make them merry in my house of prayer. their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,"

And the dogs have a greedy appetite; they are never satisfied. And they are the shepherds! They do not have understanding. They all turn to their own way, each one for his own gain, every one of them.

The righteous one perishes, and there is no one who takes it to heart. And men of faithfulness are gathered, while there is no one who understands, for the righteous is gathered from the presence of wickedness.

And you have set your symbol behind the door and the doorpost; for you depart from me, and you go up; you make your bed wide, and you make a deal with them, you have loved their bed; you have seen their genitals.

For thus says the high and lofty one who resides forever, and whose name is holy: "I reside in a high and holy place, and with the contrite and humble of spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

For I will not attack forever, and I will not be angry forever, for the spirit will grow faint before me, and the breaths that I myself I have made.

There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."

Yet they seek me day by day, and they desire the knowledge of my ways like a nation that practiced righteousness, and had not forsaken the judgment of its God; they ask me for righteous judgments, they desire the closeness of God.

Is the fast I choose like this, a day for humankind to humiliate himself? To bow his head like a reed, and make his bed on sackcloth and ashes; you call this a fast and a day of pleasure to Yahweh?

Is it not to break your bread for the hungry? You must bring home the poor, the homeless. When you see the naked, you must cover him, and you must not hide yourself from your relatives.

Then you shall call, and Yahweh himself will answer. You shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am!' If you remove from among you the yoke, the finger-pointing and evil speech,

then you shall take your pleasure in Yahweh, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth, and I will feed you the heritage of Jacob your ancestor, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken."

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue speaks wickedness.

They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their firm paths. They have made their paths crooked for themselves; everyone who walks in it knows no peace.

Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but look! there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

We all groan like bears, and we coo mutteringly like doves. We wait for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.