Study Desk

Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off.

The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength.

For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.

The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms.

And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, "Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?" Where shall I seek comforters for you?

Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains.

Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold!

There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?

O Lord , how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?

So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

"Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.

They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.

At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.

Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord , you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich.

For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

"Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples."

Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, "Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!"