Study Desk

For just as the earth brings forth its plants, or a garden makes its plants spring up, so Adonai , God, will cause victory and glory to spring up before all nations.

You will be a glorious crown in the hand of Adonai , a royal diadem held by your God.

as a young man marries a young woman, your sons will marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, your God will rejoice over you.

No one has ever heard, no ear perceived, no eye seen, any God but you. You work for him who waits for you.

class="poetry"> It would be like fire kindling the brush, and the fire then makes the water boil. Then your enemies would know your name, the nations would tremble before you! When you did tremendous things that we were not expecting, we wished that you would come down, so that the mountains would shake at your presence! No one has ever heard, no ear perceived, no eye seen, any God but you. You work for him who waits for you. You favored those who were glad to do justice, those who remembered you in your ways. When you were angry, we kept sinning; but if we keep your ancient ways, we will be saved. All of us are like someone unclean, all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags; we wither, all of us, like leaves; and our misdeeds blow us away like the wind. No one calls on your name or bestirs himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and caused our misdeeds to destroy us. But now, Adonai , you are our father; we are the clay, you are our potter; and we are all the work of your hands. Do not be so very angry, Adonai ! Don't remember crime forever. Look, please, we are all your people. Your holy cities have become a desert, Tziyon a desert, Yerushalayim a ruin. Our holy, beautiful house, where our ancestors used to praise you, has been burned to the ground; all we cherished has been ruined. Adonai , after all this, will you still hold back? Will you still stay silent and punish us past endurance?

"But as for you who abandon Adonai , who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for a Gad, a god of luck, and fill bowls of mixed wine for Meni, a god of destiny —

Thus someone on earth who blesses himself will bless himself by the God of truth, and someone on earth who swears an oath will swear by the God of truth; for past troubles will be forgotten, hidden from my eyes.

"Would I let the baby break through and not be born?" asks Adonai . "Would I, who cause the birth, shut the womb?" asks your God.

"Haven't you brought this on yourself by abandoning Adonai your God when he led you along the way?

Your own wickedness will correct you, your own backslidings will convict you; you will know and see how bad and bitter it was to abandon Adonai your God, and how fear of me is not in you," says Adonai Elohim -Tzva'ot.

Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have committed crimes against Adonai your God, that you were promiscuous with strangers under every green tree, and that you have not paid attention to my voice," says Adonai .

A sound is heard on the heights, the house of Isra'el crying, pleading for mercy, because they have perverted their way and forgotten Adonai their God.

"Return, backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding." "Here we are, we are coming to you, for you are Adonai our God.

Indeed the hills have proved a delusion, likewise the orgies on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Isra'el is in Adonai our God.

Let us lie down in our shame, let our disgrace cover us, for we have sinned against Adonai our God, both we and our ancestors, from our youth until today; we have not paid attention to the voice of Adonai our God."

My reaction was, "These must be the poor, the foolish, not knowing the way of Adonai or the rulings of their God.

I will go to the prominent men, and I will speak to them; for they know the way of Adonai and the rulings of their God." But these had completely broken the yoke and torn the harness off.

And when your people ask, ‘Why has Adonai our God done all these things to us?' you are to give them this answer: ‘Just as you abandoned me and served strange gods in your own land, so likewise you will serve strangers in a land that is not your own.'

They don't say to themselves, "Let's fear Adonai our God, who gives the fall and spring rains in season, who reserves us the weeks assigned for harvest."

Here is what Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "Improve your ways and actions, and I will let you stay in this place.