Study Desk

I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.

Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a desert, so no one can pass through it?

They adorn it with silver and gold and fasten it with hammer and nails, so that it will not totter.

For this is what the LORD says: "Behold, at this time I will sling out the inhabitants of the land and bring distress on them so that they may be captured."

Yet they would not obey or incline their ears, but each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant I commanded them to follow but they did not keep.'"

What right has My beloved in My house, having carried out so many evil schemes? Can consecrated meat avert your doom, so that you can rejoice?

And the LORD informed me, so I knew. Then You showed me their deeds.

So this is what the LORD of Hosts says: "I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.

So I bought a loincloth as the LORD instructed me, and I put it around my waist.

So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD had commanded me.

So I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth, and I took it from the place where I had hidden it. But now it was ruined-of no use at all.

For just as a loincloth clings to a man's waist, so I have made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the LORD, so that they might be My people for My renown and praise and glory-but they did not listen.

So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen.

This is what the LORD says about this people: "Truly they love to wander; they have not restrained their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; He will now remember their guilt and call their sins to account."

Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of healing, but there was only terror.

Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies alone send showers? Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have done all these things.

You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD. You have turned your back, so I have stretched out My hand against you to destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion.

So I will cast you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'

So I went down to the potter's house and saw him working at the wheel.

But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.