Study Desk

"I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.'

All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations-

a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick;

who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat;

who say, 'Keep away; don't come near me, for I am too sacred for you!' Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.

"See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps-

both your sins and the sins of your fathers," says the LORD . "Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds."