Study Desk

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a youth,' Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, And all that I command you, you shall speak.

"And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land," declares the LORD, "they will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again.

"Then I said, 'How I would set you among My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!' And I said, 'You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from following Me.'

"And it shall come about on that day," declares the LORD, "that the heart of the king and the hearts of the leaders will fail; and the priests will tremble, and the prophets will be astonished."

For this is what the LORD says: "The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.

"Shall I not punish them for these things?" declares the LORD, "And shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?

"And it shall come about when they say, 'Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' then you shall say to them, 'Just as you have abandoned Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'

'Shall I not punish them for these things?' declares the LORD, 'Or shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?'

"Be warned, Jerusalem, Or I shall be alienated from you, And make you a desolation, An uninhabited land."

To whom shall I speak and give warning, That they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become for them a rebuke; They take no delight in it.

But I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary of holding it in. "Pour it out on the children in the street And on the gathering of young men together; For both husband and wife shall be taken, The old and the very old.

"Their houses shall be turned over to others, Their fields and their wives together; For I will stretch out My hand Against the inhabitants of the land," declares the LORD.

"But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may go well for you.'

"So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

"And you shall say to them, 'This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God or accept discipline; trustworthiness has perished and has been eliminated from their mouth.

"You shall say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: "Do people fall and not get up? Does one turn away and not repent?

"Shall I not punish them for these things?" declares the LORD. "Shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?

This is what you shall say to them: "The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens."

which I commanded your forefathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, 'Listen to My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,'

"Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying: 'There will be no sword or famine in this land'—by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end!