Study Desk

This will happen because Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen. They turned against the Lord . They said and did things against him, right in front of his glorious eyes.

Look, the Lord is standing to judge his people.

The Lord is ready to present his case against the elders and leaders of his people. He says, "You people have burned the vineyard, and what you stole from the poor is still in your houses.

Now I will sing a song for my friend, my love song about his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

At your parties with your wine, harps, drums, flutes, and other musical instruments, you don't see what the Lord has done. You don't notice what his hands have made.

So the Lord became angry with his people, and he raised his hand to punish them. Even the mountains shook with fear. Dead bodies were left in the streets like garbage. And he is not finished yet. He is still angry, and his arm is raised to continue punishing his people.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a very high and wonderful throne. His long robe filled the Temple.

The angels were calling to each other, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord All-Powerful. His Glory fills the whole earth."

There was a fire on the altar. One of the Seraph angels used a pair of tongs to take a hot coal from the fire. Then the angel flew to me with it in his hand.

The Lord will use Assyria to punish Judah. Assyria will be hired and used like a razor to shave off Judah's beard and to remove the hair from his head and body.

But the Lord will bring the king of Assyria and all his power against them. The Assyrians will come like their swift moving river, like water that rises and spills over its banks.

This water will be like a flash flood as it passes through Judah. It will rise to Judah's throat and almost drown him. But he will spread his wings over your whole country, Immanuel.

The Lord spoke to me with his great power and warned me not to be like these people. He said,

Here I am with the children the Lord has given me. We are here as signs from the Lord All-Powerful, who lives on Mount Zion. He is using us to show his plans for the people of Israel.

When the enemy comes, there will be hard times and hunger. And when he becomes hungry, he will become angry. He will say curses in the name of his king and his gods. Then he will lift his head upwards like a roaring lion .

This will happen when the special child is born. God will give us a son who will be responsible for leading the people. His name will be "Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, Father Who Lives Forever, Prince of Peace."

His power will continue to grow, and there will be peace without end. This will establish him as the king sitting on David's throne and ruling his kingdom. He will rule with goodness and justice forever and ever. The strong love that the Lord All-Powerful has for his people will make this happen!

As for Israel, the Arameans are in front of him and the Philistines are behind him. And they are both eating away at him. But the Lord is not finished yet. He is still angry, and his arm is raised to continue punishing Israel.

All of them are evil. So the Lord is not happy with the young men, and he will not show mercy to their widows and orphans. That is because they are evil hypocrites. They tell lies. The Lord has punished them, but he is not finished yet. He is still angry, and his arm is raised to continue punishing his people.

Manasseh fought against Ephraim, and Ephraim fought against Manasseh. Then both of them turned on Judah. But the Lord is not finished punishing his people. He is still angry, and his arm is raised to continue punishing them.