Study Desk

Your own sin will punish you. Your turning away from the Lord will punish you. So know and see that it is sinful and bitter for you to leave the Lord your God. You have no fear of Me," says the Lord God of All.

"As a robber is put to shame when he is caught, so the family of Israel is put to shame: they, their kings, their rulers, their religious leaders, and their men of God.

Why do you go around so much changing your way? You will be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.

So the rains have been held back. There has been no spring rain. You look like a woman who sells the use of her body, and would not be ashamed.

And because this sin was so easy for her, she sinned by worshiping stones and trees.

For sure, as a woman is not faithful and leaves her husband, so you have not been faithful to Me, O people of Israel," says the Lord.

My soul, my soul! I am in pain! O, my heart! My heart is beating so hard! It cannot be quiet, for I hear the sound of the horn, telling of the coming war.

So a lion from among the trees will kill them. A wolf of the deserts will destroy them. A leopard is watching their cities. Every one who goes out of them will be torn in pieces, because they have done many sins. They have turned away from the Lord in many ways.

The men who speak for God are only wind. The word is not in them. So let what they say be done to them!'"

So the Lord, the God of All, says, "Because you have said this, I am making My words in your mouth a fire and I am making these people wood so they will be burned up.

"When your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?' then you will say to them, ‘As you have left Me and served strange gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'

Like a basket full of birds, their houses are full of lies and false ways. So they have become important and rich.

They are fat and smooth, and have done many sinful acts. They do not do what is right for those whose parents have died so that they may do well. And they do not help fight for the rights of the poor.

As a well keeps its water good for drinking, so Jerusalem keeps going on in her sin. The sounds of those who fight and those who destroy are heard in her. Sickness and sorrow are always before Me.

Were they ashamed because of the sinful things they had done? No, they were not ashamed at all. They did not even know how to turn red. So they will fall among those who fall. When I punish them, they will be brought down," says the Lord.

So hear, O nations, and know, O people, what will happen to them.

So the Lord says, "See, I am laying things in front of these people, and they will fall over them. Fathers and sons will fall together, and neighbor and friend will die."

So as I did to Shiloh, I will do to the house that is called by My name and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave you and your fathers.

So the Lord God says, "See, My anger will be poured out on this place, on man and animal, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. It will burn and not be stopped."

So the days are coming," says the Lord, "when it will not be called Topheth any more, or the valley of the son of Hinnom. But it will be called the valley of Killing. For they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place.