Study Desk

Jerusalem is like a pot with rust on it. This is because the blood from the murders is still there! She put the blood on the bare rock. She did not pour the blood on the ground and cover it with dirt.

There will be so many of his horses that the dust from them will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of horse soldiers, wagons, and chariots when the king of Babylon enters the city through your city gates. Yes, they will come into your city because its walls will be pulled down.

I will make you a bare rock. You will be a place by the sea for spreading fishing nets! You will not be rebuilt, because I, the Lord , have spoken!" This is what the Lord God said.

Aram traded with you because you had so many good things. They traded emeralds, purple cloth, fine needlework, fine linen, coral, and rubies for the things you sold.

The merchants in other nations whistle about you. What happened to you will frighten people, because you were destroyed. You are gone forever.'"

Through your great wisdom and trade, you have made your riches grow. And now you are proud because of those riches.

Strangers will treat you like a foreigner and kill you, because I gave the command!'" This is what the Lord God said.

Then all the people living in Egypt will know that I am the Lord ! "‘Why will I do these things? Because the people of Israel leaned on Egypt for support, but Egypt was only a weak blade of grass.

Egypt will be empty and destroyed. Then they will know that I am the Lord ." God said, "Why will I do these things? Because you said, ‘This is my river. I made this river.'

"Now, none of the trees by that water will be proud. They will not try to reach the clouds. None of the strong trees that drink that water will brag about being tall, because all of them must die. They will all go down into the world below, to Sheol, the place of death. They will join the other people who died and went down into that deep hole."

That will happen because of what the Lord God said: "The sword of the king of Babylon will come to fight against you.

But now they are lying down by the powerful men who died long, long ago! They were buried with their weapons of war. Their swords will be laid under their heads. But their sins are on their bones, because when they were alive, they scared people.

"‘But what if the guard sees the enemy soldiers coming, but does not blow the trumpet? Since he doesn't warn the people, the enemy will capture them and take them away as prisoners. They will be taken away because they sinned, but the guard will also be responsible for their deaths.'

I might say to you, ‘These evil people will die.' Then you must go warn them for me. If you don't warn them and tell them to change their lives, those evil people will die because they sinned. But I will make you responsible for their deaths.

But if you do warn the evil people to change their lives and stop sinning, and if they refuse to stop, they will die because they sinned. But you have saved your life.

"So, son of man, speak to the family of Israel for me. They might say, ‘We have sinned and broken the law. Our sins are too heavy to bear. We rot away because of them. What can we do to live?'

"Maybe I will tell good people that they will live. But maybe those good people will begin to think that the good things they did in the past will save them. So they might begin to do bad things, but I will not remember the good things they did in the past! No, they will die because of the bad things they begin to do.

I will not remember the bad things they did in the past, because now they live right and are fair. So they will live!

If good people stop doing good and begin to sin, they will die because of their sins.

"‘And now the sheep are scattered because there was no shepherd. They became food for every wild animal, so they were scattered.