Study Desk

"Why do you go around so much Changing your way? Also, you will be put to shame by Egypt, Just as you were put to shame by Assyria.

"However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover, So you have dealt treacherously with Me, House of Israel," declares the LORD.

Wash your heart from evil, Jerusalem, So that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you?

"The prophets are as wind, And the word is not in them. So it will be done to them!"

"And it shall come about when they say, 'Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' then you shall say to them, 'Just as you have abandoned Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'

'Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich.

'They are fat, they are sleek, They also excel in deeds of wickedness; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the orphan, so that they may be successful; And they do not defend the rights of the poor.

"As a well keeps its waters fresh, So she keeps fresh her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard in her; Sickness and wounds are constantly before Me.

"I have made you an assayer and an examiner among My people, So that you may know and put their way to the test."

then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are saved!'—so that you may do all these abominations?

"But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may go well for you.'

"So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

"The wise men are put to shame, They are dismayed and caught; Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, So what kind of wisdom do they have?

Oh that I had in the desert A travelers' lodging place; So that I might leave my people And go away from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous people.

"I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And for the pastures of the wilderness a song of mourning, Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, And the sound of the livestock is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.

Who is the wise person who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed, laid waste like the desert, so that no one passes through?

"Have them hurry and take up a wailing for us, So that our eyes may shed tears, And our eyelids flow with water.

"They decorate the idol with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not totter.

For this is what the LORD says: "Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land At this time, And I will cause them distress, So that they may be found."

which I commanded your forefathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, 'Listen to My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,'