Study Desk

Through your great skill in trading, you have made your riches grow. You are too proud because of your riches.

Because you traded with countries far away, you learned to be cruel, and you sinned. So I threw you down in disgrace from the mountain of God. And the living creature who guarded you forced you out from among the gems that shined like fire.

You became too proud because of your beauty. You ruined your wisdom because of your greatness. I threw you down to the ground. Your example taught a lesson to other kings.

Egypt will become an empty desert. Then they will know that I am the Lord . "‘Because you said, "The Nile River is mine, and I have made it,"

So the tree was taller than all the other trees in the countryside. Its limbs became long and big because of so much water.

So the tree was great and beautiful, with its long branches, because its roots reached down to much water.

So I handed it over to a mighty ruler of the nations for him to punish it. Because it was evil, I got rid of it.

So the trees that grow by the water will not be proud to be tall; they will not put their tops among the clouds. None of the trees that are watered well will grow that tall, because they all are meant to die and go under the ground. They will be with people who have died and have gone down to the place of the dead.

I will cause many people to be shocked about you. Their kings will tremble with fear because of you when I swing my sword in front of them. They will shake every moment on the day you fall; each king will be afraid for his own life.

But if the watchman sees the enemy coming to attack and does not blow the trumpet, the people will not be warned. Then if the enemy comes and kills any of them, they have died because of their own sin. But I will punish the watchman for their deaths.'

Suppose I say to the wicked: ‘Wicked people, you will surely die,' but you don't speak to warn the wicked to stop doing evil. Then they will die because they were sinners, but I will punish you for their deaths.

But if you warn the wicked to stop doing evil and they do not stop, they will die because they were sinners. But you have saved your life.

If I tell good people, ‘You will surely live,' they might think they have done enough good and then do evil. Then none of the good things they did will be remembered. They will die because of the evil they have done.

They will know that I am the Lord when I make the land an empty desert because of the things they have done that I hate.'

The sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for every wild animal.

As surely as I live, my flock has been caught and eaten by all the wild animals, because the flock has no shepherd. The shepherds did not search for my flock. No, they fed themselves instead of my flock.

So this is what the Lord God says: As surely as I live, I will treat you just as you treated them. You were angry and jealous because you hated them. So I will punish you and show the Israelites who I am.

So prophesy about the land of Israel and say to the mountains, hills, ravines, and valleys: ‘This is what the Lord God says: I speak in my jealous anger, because you have suffered the insults of the nations.

So I poured out my anger against them, because they murdered in the land and because they made the land unclean with their idols.

I will increase the harvest of the field so you will never again suffer shame among the nations because of hunger.