Study Desk

Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, And gold from Uphaz, The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith; Their clothing is of violet and purple; They are all the work of skilled people.

For this is what the LORD says: "Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land At this time, And I will cause them distress, So that they may be found."

For the shepherds have become stupid And have not sought the LORD. Therefore they have not prospered, And all their flock is scattered.

Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You, And on the families who do not call upon Your name; For they have devoured Jacob; They have devoured him and consumed him, And have laid waste his settlement.

"They have turned back to the wrongdoings of their ancestors who refused to hear My words, and they have followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers."

"Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they certainly will not save them in the time of their disaster.

The LORD of armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me by offering sacrifices to Baal.

But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, "Let's destroy the tree with its fruit, And let's cut him off from the land of the living, So that his name will no longer be remembered."

"If you have run with infantrymen and they have tired you out, How can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket by the Jordan?

"For even your brothers and the household of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you, Even they have called aloud after you. Do not believe them, though they say nice things to you."

"But if they do not listen, then I will drive out that nation, drive it out and destroy it," declares the LORD.

'For as the undergarment clings to the waist of a man, so I made the entire household of Israel and the entire household of Judah cling to Me,' declares the LORD, 'so that they might be My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they did not listen.'

"Therefore you are to speak this word to them. 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: "Every jug is to be filled with wine."' And when they say to you, 'Do we not very well know that every jug is to be filled with wine?'

"Their nobles have sent their servants for water; They have come to the cisterns and found no water. They have returned with their containers empty; They have been put to shame and humiliated, And they cover their heads,

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

"When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather, I am going to put an end to them by the sword, famine, and plague."

Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility, and the deception of their own minds.

"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!

"And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. For I will pour out their own wickedness upon them.

'If I go out to the country, There are those killed by the sword! Or if I enter the city, There are diseases from famine! For both prophet and priest Have wandered around in the land that they do not know.'"