Study Desk

The chariots race recklessly along the streets and rush wildly through the squares. They flash like firelight and move as swiftly as lightning.

Nineveh's exile has been decreed, and all the servant girls mourn its capture. They moan like doves and beat their breasts in sorrow.

Your merchants have multiplied until they outnumber the stars. But like a swarm of locusts, they strip the land and fly away.

I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands.

They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like.

Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.

They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them!

They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god."

But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?

Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate?

Then they will worship their nets and burn incense in front of them. "These nets are the gods who have made us rich!" they will claim.

"Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.

Wealth is treacherous, and the arrogant are never at rest. They open their mouths as wide as the grave, and like death, they are never satisfied. In their greed they have gathered up many nations and swallowed many peoples.

Suddenly, your debtors will take action. They will turn on you and take all you have, while you stand trembling and helpless.

What sorrow awaits you who say to wooden idols, ‘Wake up and save us!' To speechless stone images you say, ‘Rise up and teach us!' Can an idol tell you what to do? They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are lifeless inside.

For they go up to their roofs and bow down to the sun, moon, and stars. They claim to follow the Lord , but then they worship Molech, too.

And I will destroy those who used to worship me but now no longer do. They no longer ask for the Lord 's guidance or seek my blessings."

The remnant of the tribe of Judah will pasture there. They will rest at night in the abandoned houses in Ashkelon. For the Lord their God will visit his people in kindness and restore their prosperity again.

Those who are left will be the lowly and humble, for it is they who trust in the name of the Lord .

The remnant of Israel will do no wrong; they will never tell lies or deceive one another. They will eat and sleep in safety, and no one will make them afraid."