Study Desk

So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless.

So he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come;

Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.

I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, "My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?"

So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.

In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.

So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.

You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother—

As marauders lie in ambush for a victim, so do bands of priests; they murder on the road to Shechem, carrying out their wicked schemes.

The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac.

The people who live in Samaria fear for the calf-idol of Beth Aven. Its people will mourn over it, and so will its idolatrous priests, those who had rejoiced over its splendor, because it is taken from them into exile.

Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her fair neck. I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground.

the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated— as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

So will it happen to you, Bethel, because your wickedness is great. When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.

Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow— so great is their wickedness!"

They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.