Study Desk

They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD, Nor will their sacrifices please Him. Their bread will be to them like mourners' bread; All who eat it will be defiled, Because their bread will be for themselves alone; It will not enter the house of the LORD.

For behold, they will be gone because of destruction; Egypt will gather them together, Memphis will bury them. Weeds will take possession of their treasures of silver; Thorns will be in their tents.

The days of punishment have come, The days of retribution have come; Let Israel know this! The prophet is a fool, The inspired person is insane, Because of the grossness of your wrongdoing, And because your hostility is so great.

All their evil is at Gilgal; Indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house! I will no longer love them; All their leaders are rebels.

My God will reject them Because they have not listened to Him; And they will be wanderers among the nations.

You have plowed wickedness, you have harvested injustice, You have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your way, in your many warriors,

So it will be done to you at Bethel because of your great wickedness. At dawn the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

They will not return to the land of Egypt; But Assyria—he will be their king Because they refused to return to Me.

And the sword will whirl against their cities, And will destroy their oracle priests And consume them, because of their counsels.

Samaria will pay the penalty for her guilt, Because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, Their children will be slaughtered, And their pregnant women will be ripped open.

Return, Israel, to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled because of your wrongdoing.

I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, Because My anger has turned away from them.

Awake, you heavy drinkers, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, Because of the sweet wine, For it has been eliminated from your mouth.

Be ashamed, you farm workers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

The seeds have dried up under their shovels; The storehouses have become desolate, The grain silos are ruined, Because the grain has dried up.

How the animals have groaned! The herds of cattle have wandered aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep have suffered.

"But I will remove the northern army far from you, And I will drive it into a dry and desolate land, Its advance guard into the eastern sea, And its rear guard into the western sea. And its stench will ascend and its odor of decay will come up, Because it has done great things."

Egypt will become a wasteland, And Edom will become a desolate wilderness, Because of the violence done to the sons of Judah, In whose land they have shed innocent blood.

This is what the LORD says: "For three offenses of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, Because they threshed Gilead with iron sledges.

This is what the LORD says: "For three offenses of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, Because they led into exile an entire population To turn them over to Edom.