Study Desk

"If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, ^(F24) how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?

Your brothers, your own family- even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.

"I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies.

My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her.

Has not my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack? Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour.

Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.

It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.

Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe.

They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. So bear the shame of your harvest because of the LORD's fierce anger."