Study Desk

If you make yourselves stupid, you will stay stupid! If you blind yourselves, you will stay blind! You are drunk, but not from wine; you are staggering, but not from strong liquor.

In but a little while the L'vanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field regarded as a forest.

"Woe to the rebellious children," says Adonai . "They make plans, but the plans are not mine; they develop alliances, but not from my Spirit, in order to pile sin upon sin.

They go down to Egypt but don't consult me, seeking refuge in Pharaoh's protection, seeking shelter in Egypt's shadow.

But Pharaoh's protection will bring you shame, shelter in Egypt's shadow will lead to disgrace.

They say to the seers, "Do not see!" to those who have visions, "Do not tell us the visions you have as they really are; but flatter us, fabricate illusions!

For this is what Adonai Elohim , the Holy One of Isra'el, says: "Returning and resting is what will save you; calmness and confidence will make you strong — but you want none of this!

Though Adonai may give you but bread and water, and not very much of that; your teacher will no longer hide himself, but with your own eyes you will see your teacher.

Woe to those going down to Egypt expecting help — relying on horses; trusting in chariots, because they have many, and in the strength of their cavalrymen — but not looking to the Holy One of Isra'el, not consulting Adonai .

But he too is wise and can bring disaster, and he does not take back his words; he will rise against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who do wrong.

But the generous person devises generous things, and his generosity will keep him standing.

But there in his splendor Adonai will be with us, in a place of rivers and broad streams. But no boat with oars will go there, no majestic ship will pass by.

A highway will be there, a way, called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not pass over it, but it will be for those whom he guides — fools will not stray along it.

No lion or other beast of prey will be there, traveling on it. They will not be found there, but the redeemed will go there.

But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Adonai our God,' then isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, telling Y'hudah and Yerushalayim, ‘You must worship before this altar'?

But Rav-Shakeh answered, "Did my master send me to deliver my message just to your master and yourselves? Didn't he send me to address the men sitting on the wall, who, like you, are going to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?"

But they kept still and didn't answer him so much as a word, for the king's order was, "Don't answer him."

They said to him, "This is what Hizkiyahu says: ‘Today is a day of trouble, rebuke and disgrace. Children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to bring them to birth.

" ‘But I know when you sit, when you leave, when you enter — and when you rage against me.

" ‘This will be the sign for you [people of Isra'el]: this year, you will eat the grain that grows of itself; the second year, you will eat what grows from that; but in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.