Study Desk

Your rivers and canals will dry up. All of this will happen, because your land is full of idols, and they have made fools of you.

I, the Lord , want Babylon destroyed, because its army destroyed my temple. So, you kings of Media, sharpen your arrows and pick up your shields.

People who make idols are stupid! They will be disappointed, because their false gods cannot breathe.

The earth twists and turns in torment, because I have decided to make Babylonia a desert where no one can live, and I won't change my mind.

Babylon must be overthrown, because it slaughtered the people of Israel and of many other nations.

You feel ashamed and disgraced, because foreigners have entered my sacred temple.

An enemy will attack and destroy Babylon. Its soldiers will be captured and their weapons broken, because I am a God who takes revenge against nations for what they do.

The roads to Zion mourn because no one travels there to celebrate the festivals. The city gates are deserted; priests are weeping. Young women are raped; Zion is in sorrow!

Enemies now rule the city and live as they please. The Lord has punished Jerusalem because of her awful sins; he has let her people be dragged away.

Because of this, I mourn, and tears flood my eyes. No one is here to comfort or to encourage me; we have lost the war— my people are suffering.

Won't you look and see how upset I am, our Lord ? My stomach is in knots, and my heart is broken because I betrayed you. In the streets and at home, my people are slaughtered.

Don't let their evil deeds escape your sight. Punish them as much as you have punished me because of my sins. I never stop groaning— I've lost all hope!

My people, both young and old, lie dead in the streets. Because you were angry, my young men and women were brutally slaughtered.

The Prophet Speaks: I have suffered much because God was angry.

He causes a lot of suffering, but he also has pity because of his great love.

Jerusalem was punished because her prophets and her priests had sinned and caused the death of innocent victims.

We had to surrender to Egypt and Assyria because we were hungry.

Zion's glory has disappeared! And we are doomed because of our sins.

Wherever the four living creatures went, they moved together without turning their bodies, because each creature faced straight ahead.

But the people of Israel will refuse to listen, because they have refused to listen to me. All of them are stubborn and hardheaded,