Study Desk

For just as a loincloth clings to a man's waist, so I have made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the LORD, so that they might be My people for My renown and praise and glory-but they did not listen.

Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of healing, but there was only terror.

For I have heard the whispering of many, "Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!" All my trusted friends watch for my fall: "Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him."

because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged.

"Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, since Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is waging war against us. Perhaps the LORD will perform for us something like all His past wonders, so that Nebuchadnezzar will withdraw from us."

And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah."

But no longer refer to the oracle of the LORD, for each man's word becomes the oracle, so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God.

Perhaps they will listen and turn-each from his evil way of life-so that I may relent of the disaster that I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.

So now, correct your ways and deeds and obey the voice of the LORD your God, so that He might relent of the disaster that He has pronounced against you.

Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease.

Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and orders the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar-the LORD of Hosts is His name:

I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will never turn away from Me.

"This is what the LORD says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night cease to occupy their appointed time,

then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant and with My ministers the Levites who are priests, so that David will not have a son to reign on his throne.

Nor are you ever to build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Instead, you must live in tents all your lives, so that you may live a long time in the land where you sojourn.'

For I will surely rescue you so that you do not fall by the sword. Because you have trusted in Me, you will escape with your life like a spoil of war, declares the LORD."

Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke privately to Gedaliah at Mizpah. "Let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah," he said. "No one will know it. Why should he take your life and scatter all the Jews who have gathered to you, so that the remnant of Judah would perish?"

Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us, for we will obey the voice of the LORD our God!"

Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Chaldeans, so that they may put us to death or exile us to Babylon!"