Study Desk

Thus says Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: "You may as well eat the meat of your burnt offerings along with that of your sacrifices.

Rather, what I did order them was this: ‘Pay attention to what I say. Then I will be your God, and you will be my people. In everything, live according to the way that I order you, so that things will go well for you.'

Therefore, say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Adonai their God. They won't take correction; faithfulness has perished; it has vanished from their mouths.

"Why are we sitting still? Assemble! Let's enter the fortified cities and meet our doom there! For Adonai our God has doomed us; he has given us bitter water to drink, because we have sinned against Adonai .

therefore," says Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: "I will feed this people bitter wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.

class="poetry"> I wish I were out in the desert, in some travelers' lodge — then I could get away from my people and distance myself from them! "Indeed they are all adulterers, a band of traitors is what they are. They bend their tongues, their ‘bow' of falsehood, and hold sway in the land, but not for truth. For they go from evil to evil, and me they do not know," says Adonai . Everyone, be on guard against your neighbor, don't trust even a brother; for every brother is out to trick you, and every neighbor goes around gossiping. Everyone deceives his neighbor, no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to lie, they wear themselves out with sinning. "You inhabit a world of deceit; deceitfully they refuse to know me," says Adonai . "Therefore," says Adonai -Tzva'ot, "I will refine them and test them. What else can I do with the daughter of my people? Their tongues are sharpened arrows; with their mouths they speak deceit — they say nice words to their neighbors, while inwardly plotting against them. Should I not punish them for these things?" asks Adonai . "Should I not take vengeance on such a nation?" I weep and wail for the mountains and lament over the desert pastures, because they have been burned up; no one passes through; they no longer hear the sound of cattle; the birds and wild animals have fled, are gone. "I will make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins, turn it into a lair for jackals, and make the cities of Y'hudah desolate, with no one living there." Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of Adonai spoken, so that he can proclaim it? Why has the land perished and been laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through? Adonai answers: "Because they abandoned my Torah, which I set before them, and neither listened to what I said nor lived accordingly, but have lived by their own hearts' stubbornness and by the ba‘alim, as their ancestors taught them — therefore," says Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: "I will feed this people bitter wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink. I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known. I will send the sword after them until I have wiped them out." Thus says Adonai -Tzva'ot: "Mark this, then summon the mourning women, so that they will come; send for those who are best [at mourning], so that they will come: ‘Have them hurry and wail for us, so our eyes will be wet from crying, and our eyelids gush with tears.' For the sound of wailing is heard from Tziyon: ‘We are utterly ruined, we are completely ashamed, because we have left the land, and our homes have been torn down!'" You women, hear the word of Adonai ! Let your ears receive the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail, have each teach her friend how to lament: "Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, it has cut down children in the streets and young people in the public places." Say: "Here is what Adonai says: ‘The corpses of people are scattered like dung in an open field, like sheaves left behind by the reaper with no one to gather them.'" Here is what Adonai says: "The wise man should not boast of his wisdom, the powerful should not boast of his power, the wealthy should not boast of his wealth; instead, let the boaster boast about this: that he understands and knows me — that I am Adonai , practicing grace, justice and righteousness in the land; for in these things I take pleasure," says Adonai . "The days are coming," says Adonai , "when I will punish all those who have been circumcised in their uncircumcision — Egypt, Y'hudah, Edom, the people of ‘Amon and Mo'av, and all those living in the desert who cut the edges [of their beard]: "For although all the Goyim are uncircumcised, all the house of Isra'el have uncircumcised hearts."

But Adonai , God, is the true God, the living God, the everlasting king. At his anger, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his fury.

God made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom spread out the sky by his understanding.

tell them that Adonai the God of Isra'el says: ‘A curse on anyone who does not pay attention to the words of this covenant,

which I enjoined on your ancestors at the time that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of that iron-smelter. I said, "Listen to my voice, and carry out all my orders; then you will be my people, and I will be your God;

So you are to tell them, "This is what Adonai the God of Isra'el says: ‘Every bottle is filled with wine.'" Then when they ask you, "Don't we already know that every bottle is filled with wine?"

Give glory to Adonai your God before the darkness falls, before your feet stumble on the mountains in the twilight, and, while you are seeking light, he turns it into deathlike shadows and makes it completely dark.

Then I said, " Adonai , God! The prophets are telling them, ‘You won't see war, and you won't have famine; but I will give you secure peace in this place.'"

Among the nations' idols, can any make it rain? Can the skies, of themselves, send showers? Aren't you the one, Adonai , our God? Don't we look to you? For you do all these things.

For here is what Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: ‘In this place, while you are still alive, before your very eyes, I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bridegroom and bride.'

"When you tell this people all that I have said, and they ask you, ‘Why has Adonai decreed all this terrible disaster against us? What is our iniquity, what is our sin, that we have committed against Adonai our God?'

Say: ‘Hear the word of Adonai , kings of Y'hudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim! This is what Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "I am about to bring disaster on this place that will make the ears of whoever hears about it ring.

"This is what Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: ‘I am bringing on this city and all its surrounding villages all the disaster I have pronounced against it; because they have stiffened their necks and refused to pay attention to my words.'"

because God did not put me to death in the womb and let my mother become my grave, her womb forever filled with me.

‘This is what Adonai , the God of Isra'el, says: "I will make the weapons of war that you have in your hands ineffectual in your fight against the king of Bavel and the Kasdim who are outside the walls besieging you. Instead, I will gather them inside this city;