Study Desk

This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the Lord , because he had already told them so.)

All this is because of Jacob's transgression, because of the sins of the people of Israel. What is Jacob's transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is Judah's high place? Is it not Jerusalem?

Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl.

Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain, waiting for relief, because disaster has come from the Lord , even to the gate of Jerusalem.

Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.

Get up, go away! For this is not your resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy.

Then they will cry out to the Lord , but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.

The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God."

Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins.

You will eat but not be satisfied; your stomach will still be empty. You will store up but save nothing, because what you save I will give to the sword.

Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord 's wrath, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.

The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds.

all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.

indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.

Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

"I will bring such distress on all people that they will grope about like those who are blind, because they have sinned against the Lord . Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like dung.

On that day you, Jerusalem, will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because I will remove from you your arrogant boasters. Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill.

"You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.

Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.