Study Desk

"You are not to say, 'It is a conspiracy!' Regarding everything that this people call a conspiracy, And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.

"Many will stumble over them, Then they will fall and be broken; They will be snared and caught."

When they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should a people not consult their God? Should they consult the dead in behalf of the living?

To the Law and to the testimony! If they do not speak in accordance with this word, it is because they have no dawn.

They will pass through the land dejected and hungry, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will become enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward.

Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.

The Arameans from the east and the Philistines from the west; And they devour Israel with gaping jaws. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away, And His hand is still stretched out.

For wickedness burns like a fire; It consumes briars and thorns; It also sets the thickets of the forest aflame And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

They devour what is on the right hand but are still hungry, And they eat what is on the left hand, but they are not satisfied; Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.

Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, And together they are against Judah. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still stretched out.

So as to deprive the needy of justice And rob the poor among My people of their rights, So that widows may be their spoil And that they may plunder the orphans.

They have gone through the pass, saying, "Geba will be our encampment for the night." Ramah is terrified, and Gibeah of Saul has fled.

They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west; Together they will plunder the people of the east; They will possess Edom and Moab, And the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.

And there will be a highway from Assyria For the remnant of His people who will be left, Just as there was for Israel On the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

They are coming from a distant country, From the farthest horizons, The LORD and the weapons of His indignation, To destroy the whole land.

They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame.

And their bows will mow down the young men, They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb, Nor will their eye pity children.

The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will make them their own possession in the land of the LORD as male and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

"The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; They break forth into shouts of joy.

"They will all respond and say to you, 'Even you have become weak as we, You have become like us.