Study Desk

Sow for yourselves in righteousness, Reap according to loving-kindness, Till for yourselves tillage of knowledge, To seek Jehovah, Till he come and shew righteousness to you.

Ye have ploughed wickedness, Perversity ye have reaped, Ye have eaten the fruit of lying, For thou hast trusted in thy way, In the abundance of thy might.

Because Israel [is] a youth, and I love him, Out of Egypt I have called for My Son.

He turneth not back unto the land of Egypt, And Asshur -- he [is] his king, For they have refused to return.

I do not the fierceness of My anger, I turn not back to destroy Ephraim, For God I [am], and not a man. In thy midst the Holy One, and I enter not in enmity,

And Ephraim saith: `Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself, All my labours -- they find not against me iniquity that [is] sin.'

And Jacob doth flee to the country of Aram, And Israel doth serve for a wife, Yea, for a wife he hath kept watch.

Pangs of a travailing woman come to him, He [is] a son not wise, For he remaineth not the time for the breaking forth of sons.

Turn back, O Israel, unto Jehovah thy God, For thou hast stumbled by thine iniquity.

Asshur doth not save us, on a horse we ride not, Nor do we say any more, Our God, to the work of our hands, For in Thee find mercy doth the fatherless.'

I heal their backsliding, I love them freely, For turned back hath Mine anger from him.

Who [is] wise, and doth understand these? Prudent, and knoweth them? For upright are the ways of Jehovah, And the righteous go on in them, And the transgressors stumble therein!

Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, And howl all drinking wine, because of the juice, For it hath been cut off from your mouth.

For a nation hath come up on my land, Strong, and there is no number, Its teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, And it hath the jaw-teeth of a lioness.

Wail, as a virgin girdeth with sackcloth, For the husband of her youth.

Spoiled is the field, mourned hath the ground, For spoiled is the corn, Dried up hath been new wine, languish doth oil.

Be ashamed, ye husbandmen, Howl, vine-dressers, for wheat and for barley, For perished hath the harvest of the field.

The vine hath been dried up, And the fig-tree doth languish, Pomegranate, also palm, and apple-tree, All trees of the field have withered, For dried up hath been joy from the sons of men.

Gird, and lament, ye priests, Howl, ye ministrants of the altar, Come in, lodge in sackcloth, ministrants of my God, For withheld from the house of your God hath been present and libation.

And cry unto Jehovah, `Alas for the day! For near [is] a day of Jehovah, And as destruction from the mighty it cometh.