Study Desk

But no longer refer to the burden of the Lord, for each man’s word becomes his burden and you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of Armies, our God.

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah I sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.

I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink from it.

“Then you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk, and vomit. Fall down and never get up again, as a result of the sword I am sending among you.’

So now, correct your ways and deeds, and obey the Lord your God so that he might relent concerning the disaster he had pronounced against you.

Then the officials and all the people told the priests and prophets, “This man doesn’t deserve the death sentence, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God!”

Command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Tell this to your masters:

Yes, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says about the articles that remain in the temple of the Lord, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:

“This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

For this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations that they might serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they will serve him. I have even put the wild animals under him.’”

This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon:

For this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you, and don’t listen to the dreams you elicit from them,

This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, the ones prophesying a lie to you in my name: “I am about to hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes.

“This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: You in your own name have sent out letters to all the people of Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests, saying,

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Write on a scroll all the words that I have spoken to you,

You will be my people,and I will be your God.

“At that time”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”

For there will be a day when watchmen will call outin the hill country of Ephraim,“Come, let’s go up to Zion,to the Lord our God!”

I have surely heard Ephraim moaning,“You disciplined me, and I have been disciplinedlike an untrained calf.Take me back, so that I can return,for you, Lord, are my God.