Study Desk

They have sown wheat, but they shall reap thorns; they have labored hard, but they shall not profit; and they shall be ashamed of their crops because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently teach my ways to my people, to swear by my name, As the LORD lives (as they taught them to swear by the name of Baal), then they shall dwell in the midst of my people.

But if they will not obey, then I will utterly pluck up and destroy this people, says the LORD.

For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so I have caused to cleave to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says the LORD; that they might be to me for a people and for a name and for a praise and for a glory; but they would not hearken.

Therefore you shall speak to them this word: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Every wineskin shall be filled with wine; and they shall say to you, Do we not know that every wineskin shall be filled with wine?

Judah mourns and her gates are desolate; they are fallen on the ground, and the painful cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

And their nobles have sent their least ones for water; they came to the cistern, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

And the wild asses stood in the paths, they snuffed up the wind like jackals; their eyes did fail because there was no grass.

Thus says the LORD to this people: They have loved to be unreliable, they have not restrained their feet from going after evil; therefore the LORD is not pleased with them; he will now remember their iniquity and punish their sins.

For if they fast, I will not hear their prayer; and if they offer burnt offerings and an oblation, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword and by famine and by pestilence.

Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: for I did not send them, neither have I commanded them nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you false visions, oracles and divinations and the deceit of their hearts;

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I did not send them; yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of sword and famine and pestilence; and they shall have none to bury them, neither their wives nor their sons nor their daughters; for I will pour out their wickedness upon them.

And it shall come to pass, if they say to you, Where shall we go? Then you shall tell them, Thus says the LORD: Those numbered for death, to death; and those numbered for the sword, to the sword; and those numbered for famine, to famine; and those numbered for captivity, to captivity.

And I will fan them with a fan in the cities of the earth; I have bereaved them of their children. I have destroyed my people, and yet they did not return from their ways.

I have made you to this people as a fortified wall of brass; and they shall fight against you. but they shall not prevail; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says the LORD.

They shall die the death of those who are ravaged by famine; they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as refuse upon the face of the earth; and they shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be food for the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

Both the great and the small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall any one mourn for them or lament for them, or shave his head for them;

And it shall come to pass, when you tell this people all these words, and they shall say to you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity, or what is our sin that we have sinned against the LORD our God?

Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the LORD, and they shall fish them from islands; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and out of the holes of the rocks.