Study Desk

so that the kingdom would be brought low, unable to rise again, surviving only by keeping his treaty.

With hooks they pulled him into a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. They put him in prison, so his roar was heard no longer on the mountains of Israel.

"‘But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in Egypt.

Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy.

"‘Yet the people of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not follow my decrees but rejected my laws—by which the person who obeys them will live—and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the wilderness.

"‘But the children rebelled against me: They did not follow my decrees, they were not careful to keep my laws, of which I said, "The person who obeys them will live by them," and they desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness.

So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live;

I defiled them through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn—that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the Lord .'

As I judged your ancestors in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, declares the Sovereign Lord .

"So then, son of man, prophesy and strike your hands together. Let the sword strike twice, even three times. It is a sword for slaughter— a sword for great slaughter, closing in on them from every side.

So that hearts may melt with fear and the fallen be many, I have stationed the sword for slaughter at all their gates. Look! It is forged to strike like lightning, it is grasped for slaughter.

As silver, copper, iron, lead and tin are gathered into a furnace to be melted with a fiery blast, so will I gather you in my anger and my wrath and put you inside the city and melt you.

As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath on you.'"

Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

"I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.

So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord ."

So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.

So I will put a stop to the lewdness and prostitution you began in Egypt. You will not look on these things with longing or remember Egypt anymore.

You have gone the way of your sister; so I will put her cup into your hand.

"This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "You will drink your sister's cup, a cup large and deep; it will bring scorn and derision, for it holds so much.