Study Desk

Because you said, "We made a covenant with death, we made a contract with Sh'ol. When the raging flood passes through, it will not touch us. For we have made lies our refuge and hid ourselves in falsehoods" —

because his God has taught him this, has given him instruction.

For you this whole prophetic vision has become like the message in a sealed-up scroll. When one gives it to someone who can read and says, "Please read this," he answers, "I can't, because it's sealed."

Then Adonai said: "Because these people approach me with empty words, and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service; while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me, and their ‘fear of me' is just a mitzvah of human origin —

Therefore here is what the Holy One of Isra'el says: "Because you reject this word, trust in extortion and rely on deceit,

Woe to those going down to Egypt expecting help — relying on horses; trusting in chariots, because they have many, and in the strength of their cavalrymen — but not looking to the Holy One of Isra'el, not consulting Adonai .

In a year and a few days more, you overconfident women will shudder, because the vintage will fail, the harvest will not come.

This is what the king says: ‘Don't let Hizkiyahu deceive you, because he won't be able to save you.

And because of your rage against me, because of your pride that has reached my ears, I am putting my hook in your nose and my bridle on your lips; and I will make you return by the way on which you came.

Around this time Hizkiyahu became ill to the point of death. Yesha‘yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz, came and said to him, "Here is what Adonai says: ‘Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not live.'"

Hizkiyahu said to Yesha‘yahu, "The word of Adonai which you have just told me is good"; because he thought, "At least peace and truth will continue during my lifetime."

You can't! — because you are less than nothing. Whoever chooses you is an abomination!

Because I regard you as valued and honored, and because I love you. For you I will give people, nations in exchange for your life.

The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I put water in the desert, rivers in the wasteland, for my chosen people to drink,

But you haven't called on me, Ya‘akov; because you have grown weary of me, Isra'el.

Because I knew that you were stubborn, your neck an iron sinew, your forehead bronze,

Here is what Adonai , the Redeemer of Isra'el, his Holy One, says to the one despised, whom the nations detest, to the servant of tyrants: "When kings see you, they will stand up; princes too will prostrate themselves, because of Adonai , who is faithful, the Holy One of Isra'el, who has chosen you."

Adonai says: "Where is your mother's divorce document which I gave her when I divorced her? Or: to which of my creditors did I sell you? You were sold because of your sins; because of your crimes was your mother divorced.

You have forgotten Adonai , your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. Instead, you are in constant fear all day because of the oppressor's rage, as he prepares to destroy! But where is the oppressor's rage?

Just as many were appalled at him, because he was so disfigured that he didn't even seem human and simply no longer looked like a man,