Study Desk

"Go to the exiles, to the sons of your people, and speak to them and tell them, whether they listen or not, 'This is what the Lord GOD says.'"

Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river Chebar at Tel-abib, and I sat there for seven days where they were living, causing consternation among them.

"And as for you, son of man, they will put ropes around you and bind you with them so that you do not go out among them.

"Moreover, I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be unable to speak and will not be a man who reprimands them, since they are a rebellious house.

"But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says:' The one who hears, let him hear; and the one who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

Moreover, He said to me, "Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror,

because bread and water will be scarce; and they will tremble with one another and waste away in their guilt.

'But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.'

'Then My anger will be spent and I will satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be appeased; then they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in My zeal, when I have spent My wrath upon them.

'I will send on you famine and vicious animals, and they will bereave you of children; plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the LORD, have spoken.'"

"Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be taken captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which committed infidelity with their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations.

"Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their dead are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every leafy tree and under every massive oak with thick branches—the places where they offered a soothing aroma to all their idols.

"So through all their dwelling places I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and waste than the wilderness toward Diblah; so they will know that I am the LORD."'"

'They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all their multitude.

'They will put on sackcloth and shuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces, and a bald patch on all their heads.

'They will fling their silver into the streets, and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetite, nor can they fill their stomachs, because their wrongdoing has become a cause of stumbling.

'Moreover, they transformed the splendor of His jewels into pride, and they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them.

'And I will hand it over to the foreigners as plunder, and to the wicked of the earth as spoils; and they will profane it.

'I will also turn My face away from them, and they will profane My treasure; then robbers will enter and profane it.

'Therefore, I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will take possession of their houses. I will also put an end to the pride of the strong ones, and their holy places will be profaned.