Study Desk

Those two kings will want to hurt each other. They will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but it will not do either one any good, because God has set a time for their end to come.

"The king of the North will send his army to make the Temple in Jerusalem unclean. They will stop the people from offering the daily sacrifice, and then they will set up a blasphemous object that brings destruction.

"Those who are wise will help the others understand what is happening. But they will be killed with swords, or burned, or taken captive, or robbed of their homes and possessions. These things will continue for many days.

Some of the wise ones will be killed. But the hard times must come so they can be made stronger and purer and without faults until the time of the end comes. Then, at the right time, the end will come.

That king will attack strong, walled cities with the help of a foreign god. He will give much honor to the people who join him, making them rulers in charge of many other people. And he will make them pay him for the land they rule.

The people of Judah and Israel will join together again and will choose one leader for themselves. They will come up from the land, because the day of Jezreel will be truly great.

"At that time I will speak to you," says the Lord . "I will speak to the skies, and they will give rain to the earth.

I will plant my people in the land, and I will show pity to the one I had called ‘not shown pity.' I will say, ‘You are my people' to those I had called ‘not my people.' And they will say to me, ‘You are our God.'"

The Lord said to me again, "Go, show your love to a woman loved by someone else, who has been unfaithful to you. In the same way the Lord loves the people of Israel, even though they worship other gods and love to eat the raisin cakes."

After this, the people of Israel will return to the Lord their God and follow him and the king from David's family. In the last days they will turn in fear to the Lord , and he will bless them.

The more priests there are, the more they sin against me. I will take away their honor and give them shame.

Since the priests live off the sin offerings of the people, they want the people to sin more and more.

The priests are as wrong as the people, and I will punish them both for what they have done. I will repay them for the wrong they have done.

"My people ask wooden idols for advice; they ask those sticks of wood to advise them! Like prostitutes, they have chased after other gods and have left their own God.

They make sacrifices on the tops of the mountains. They burn offerings on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and other trees, because their shade is nice. So your daughters become prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law are guilty of adultery.

They will be swept away as if by a whirlwind, and their sacrifices will bring them only shame.

"They will not give up their deeds and return to their God. They are determined to be unfaithful to me; they do not know the Lord .

They will come to worship the Lord , bringing their flocks and herds, but they will not be able to find him, because he has left them.

They have not been true to the Lord ; they are children who do not belong to him. So their false worship will destroy them and their land.

Then I will go back to my place until they suffer for their guilt and turn back to me. In their trouble they will look for me."