Study Desk

Thus saith the LORD: stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said: 'We will not walk therein.'

And I set watchmen over you: 'Attend to the sound of the horn', but they said: 'We will not attend.'

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not attended unto My words, and as for My teaching, they have rejected it.

Therefore thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them, the neighbour and his friend, and they shall perish.

They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel, and have no compassion; their voice is like the roaring sea, and they ride upon horses; set in array, as a man for war, against thee, O daughter of Zion.

They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron; they all of them deal corruptly.

Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke Me.

But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own counsels, even in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward,

And thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee; thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee.

And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded not, neither came it into My mind.

At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;

and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped; they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

I attended and listened, but they spoke not aright; no man repenteth him of his wickedness, saying: 'What have I done?' Every one turneth away in his course, as a horse that rusheth headlong in the battle.

The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken; lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people lightly, saying: 'Peace, peace', when there is no peace.

I will utterly consume them, saith the LORD; there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf is faded; and I gave them that which they transgress.

The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan; at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembleth; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those that dwell therein.

For, behold, I will send serpents, basilisks, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.

Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far off: 'Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her?'--'Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, and with strange vanities?'--