Study Desk

No wonder I am so angry! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build sacrificial fires. See how the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. And they pour out liquid offerings to their other idol gods!

So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: "I will pour out my terrible fury on this place. Its people, animals, trees, and crops will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger."

So beware, for the time is coming," says the Lord , "when that garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They will bury the bodies in Topheth until there is no more room for them.

These wise teachers will fall into the trap of their own foolishness, for they have rejected the word of the Lord . Are they so wise after all?

Who is wise enough to understand all this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it to others? Why has the land been so ruined that no one dares to travel through it?

So now, this is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies, the God of Israel, says: Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink.

They decorate it with gold and silver and then fasten it securely with hammer and nails so it won't fall over.

Say this to those who worship other gods: "Your so-called gods, who did not make the heavens and earth, will vanish from the earth and from under the heavens."

So correct me, Lord , but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die.

I said this so I could keep my promise to your ancestors to give you a land flowing with milk and honey—the land you live in today.'" Then I replied, "Amen, Lord ! May it be so."

"What right do my beloved people have to come to my Temple, when they have done so many immoral things? Can their vows and sacrifices prevent their destruction? They actually rejoice in doing evil!

I was like a lamb being led to the slaughter. I had no idea that they were planning to kill me! "Let's destroy this man and all his words," they said. "Let's cut him down, so his name will be forgotten forever."

So this is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies says about them: "I will punish them! Their young men will die in battle, and their boys and girls will starve to death.

Lord , you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. So let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy?

My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so I have treated them with contempt.

So I bought the loincloth as the Lord directed me, and I put it on.

So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord had instructed me.

So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing.

As a loincloth clings to a man's waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the Lord . They were to be my people, my pride, my glory—an honor to my name. But they would not listen to me.

"So tell them, ‘This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: May all your jars be filled with wine.' And they will reply, ‘Of course! Jars are made to be filled with wine!'