Study Desk

Look around you and see, for all your children will come back to you. As surely as I live," says the Lord , "they will be like jewels or bridal ornaments for you to display.

Then you will think to yourself, ‘Who has given me all these descendants? For most of my children were killed, and the rest were carried away into exile. I was left here all alone. Where did all these people come from? Who bore these children? Who raised them for me?'"

But the Lord says, "The captives of warriors will be released, and the plunder of tyrants will be retrieved. For I will fight those who fight you, and I will save your children.

Not one of your children is left alive to take your hand and guide you.

For your children have fainted and lie in the streets, helpless as antelopes caught in a net. The Lord has poured out his fury; God has rebuked them.

"Sing, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into loud and joyful song, O Jerusalem, you who have never been in labor. For the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband," says the Lord .

I will teach all your children, and they will enjoy great peace.

"Don't let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will never let me be part of his people.' And don't let the eunuchs say, ‘I'm a dried-up tree with no children and no future.'

"But you—come here, you witches' children, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!

Whom do you mock, making faces and sticking out your tongues? You children of sinners and liars!

You worship your idols with great passion beneath the oaks and under every green tree. You sacrifice your children down in the valleys, among the jagged rocks in the cliffs.

"And this is my covenant with them," says the Lord . "My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children's children forever. I, the Lord , have spoken!

Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.

They will not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune. For they are people blessed by the Lord , and their children, too, will be blessed.

Who has ever seen anything as strange as this? Who ever heard of such a thing? Has a nation ever been born in a single day? Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment? But by the time Jerusalem's birth pains begin, her children will be born.

This is what the Lord says: "I will give Jerusalem a river of peace and prosperity. The wealth of the nations will flow to her. Her children will be nursed at her breasts, carried in her arms, and held on her lap.

In those days Israel was holy to the Lord , the first of his children. All who harmed his people were declared guilty, and disaster fell on them. I, the Lord , have spoken!"

Therefore, I will bring my case against you," says the Lord . "I will even bring charges against your children's children in the years to come.

"I have punished your children, but they did not respond to my discipline. You yourselves have killed your prophets as a lion kills its prey.

"Return home, you wayward children," says the Lord , "for I am your master. I will bring you back to the land of Israel— one from this town and two from that family— from wherever you are scattered.