Study Desk

"And it will come about in all the land," Declares the LORD, "That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it.

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be taken, the houses plundered, the women raped, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be eliminated from the city.

For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at the time of evening there will be light.

All the land will change into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin's Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's wine presses.

"I have loved you," says the LORD. But you say, "How have You loved us?" "Was Esau not Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob;

but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness."

Though Edom says, "We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins"; this is what the LORD of armies says: "They may build, but I will tear down; and people will call them the territory of wickedness, and the people with whom the LORD is indignant forever."

"'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says the LORD of armies to you, the priests who despise My name! But you say, 'How have we despised Your name?'

"You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, 'How have we defiled You?' In that you say, 'The table of the LORD is to be despised.'

"But now, do indeed plead for God's favor, so that He will be gracious to us. With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?" says the LORD of armies.

"But you are profaning it by your saying, 'The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.'

"But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King," says the LORD of armies, "and My name is feared among the nations."

"But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have ruined the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of armies.

"So I also have made you despised and of low reputation in the view of all the people, since you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction."

But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And why the one? He was seeking a godly offspring. Be careful then about your spirit, and see that none of you deals treacherously against the wife of your youth.

"But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like launderer's soap.

"From the days of your fathers you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of armies. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'

"Would anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.

'So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also put God to the test and escape punishment.'"

"But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and frolic like calves from the stall.