Study Desk

"Did you not see (make up) a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said, 'The LORD declares,' but it is not I who have spoken?"'"

and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Woe to the women who fasten magic (protective) charms on all wrists and make veils for the heads of those of every stature to capture [human] lives! Will you capture the lives of My people but keep your own?

"Because you disheartened the righteous with falsehood when I did not cause him grief, but have encouraged the wicked not to turn from his wicked way and preserve his life,

"Therefore speak to them and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Any man of the house of Israel who takes his idols [of rebellion] into his heart, and puts the [vile] stumbling block of his wickedness and guilt [images of silver and gold] before his face, and yet comes to the prophet [to ask of him], I the LORD will answer him, [but I will answer him] in accordance with the number of his idols,

"But if the prophet [who speaks without My authority] is enticed to speak a word [of his own], it is I the LORD who have caused that prophet [to speak falsely to please the inquirer, thus allowing himself to be a party to the inquirer's sin], and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.

so that the house of Israel may no longer drift away from Me and no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions, but they will be My people, and I will be their God,"' says the Lord GOD."

though these three men were in the land, as I live," says the Lord GOD, "they could not save either their sons or their daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate (ruined, deserted).

even though these three men were in the land, as I live," says the Lord GOD, "they could not save either their sons or their daughters, but they alone would be saved.

"No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out in the open field, for you were loathed on the day that you were born.

"But you trusted in and relied on your beauty and prostituted yourself [in idolatry and its debauched rituals] because of your fame, and you poured out your immoralities on every [willing] passer-by and your beauty was his [as you worshiped the idols of the Gentile nations].

"Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you give your gifts to all your lovers, bribing the pagan nations to come to you [as allies] from every direction for your obscene immoralities.

"Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me with all these things, therefore, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head," says the Lord GOD, "so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other repulsive acts.

"Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or behaved in accordance with their pagan practices; but, as if that were too little, you [soon] acted more corruptly in all your ways than they.

"Behold, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters (outlying cities) had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.

"Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, but you have greatly increased your repulsive acts more than they. So you have made your [wicked] sisters [Samaria and Sodom] appear righteous and justified by [comparison to] all the disgusting things which you have done.

"Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant [with Me].

"Then it sprouted and grew and became a low, spreading vine whose branches turned [in submission] toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and yielded shoots and sent out branches.

so that the kingdom would be in subjection, unable to restore itself and rise again, but that by keeping his covenant it might continue.

'But Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar by sending his ambassadors to Egypt so that they might give him horses and many troops. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Can he indeed break the covenant [with Babylon] and [still] escape?

"What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, 'The fathers eat sour grapes [they sin], But the children's teeth are set on edge'?