Study Desk

And I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to Me.' But she did not return, and her sister Judah, who has not been faithful, saw it.

She saw that for all of Israel's sins and how she had not been faithful, I had sent her away and given her a paper of divorce. Yet her sister Judah had no fear, but she went and sold the use of her body also.

Even with all this, her sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but in a false way," says the Lord.

But false gods have brought us shame and have destroyed what our fathers worked for since we were young, their flocks and cattle, their sons and their daughters.

At that time it will be said to these people and Jerusalem, "A hot wind from the open hill-tops in the desert will come toward My people, but not to blow away what is of no worth, and not to make clean.

"For My people are foolish. They do not know Me. They are children who do not think, and they have no understanding. They know a lot about how to do sinful things, but they do not know how to do good."

O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth? You have punished them, but they were not sorry. You have destroyed them, but they would not change. They have made their faces harder than rock. They would not be sorry for their sins and turn from them.

I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, and the Law of their God." But they too have broken the load from their neck and have broken the chains.

"Go up through her grape-fields and destroy, but do not destroy all of them. Cut away her branches, for they are not the Lord's.

‘Hear this, O foolish people without understanding, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.

But these people have a strong-will and a heart that has turned against Me. They have turned aside and gone away.

The men of God say things that are not true, and the religious leaders rule by their own thoughts. And My people love to have it this way! But what will you do in the end?

For the Lord of All says, "Cut down her trees, and build a battle-wall against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished. There is nothing but a sinful power that makes hard times for others within her.

But I am full of the anger of the Lord. I am tired of holding it in. "Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the young men gathered together. For both husband and wife will be taken, the old and those who have lived a very long time.

The Lord says, "Stand by where the roads cross, and look. Ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it. And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.'

I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the horn!' But they said, ‘We will not listen.'

"But go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a place for My name. And see what I did to it because of the sin of My people Israel.

Now you have done all these things," says the Lord. "I spoke to you again and again, but you did not hear. I called you but you did not answer.

But I did tell them, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. Walk in all the way that I tell you, that it may be well with you.'

Yet they did not obey or listen, but walked in the way they wanted to and in the strong-will of their sinful heart. They only stepped back and did not go on.