Study Desk

We were pregnant, we writhed in labor, We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind. We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth, Nor were inhabitants of the world born.

Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

Come, my people, enter your rooms And close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while Until indignation runs its course.

For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wrongdoing; And the earth will reveal her bloodshed And will no longer cover her slain.

For the fortified city is isolated, A homestead deserted and abandoned like the desert; There the calf will graze, And there it will lie down and feed on its branches.

When its limbs are dry, they are broken off; Women come and make a fire with them, For they are not a people of discernment, Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them. And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

A spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment, A strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.

For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place.

"For He says, 'Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.'"

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a tested stone, A precious cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. The one who believes in it will not be disturbed.

"As often as it passes through, it will seize you; For morning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night, And it will be sheer terror to understand what it means."

For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be stirred up as in the Valley of Gibeon, To do His task, His unusual task, And to work His work, His extraordinary work.

And now do not carry on as scoffers, Or your shackles will be made stronger; For I have heard from the Lord GOD of armies Of decisive destruction on all the earth.

For his God instructs and teaches him properly.

For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, Nor is the cartwheel driven over cumin; But dill is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a club.

Grain for bread is crushed, Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, He does not thresh it longer.

For the LORD has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep, He has shut your eyes—the prophets; And He has covered your heads—the seers.

Then the Lord said, "Because this people approaches Me with their words And honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of the commandment of men that is taught;

For the ruthless will come to an end and the scorner will be finished, Indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be eliminated,

Who cause a person to be indicted by a word, And set a trap for the arbitrator at the gate, And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.