Study Desk

"So as for you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.

"What right has My beloved in My house When she has carried out many evil schemes? Can the sacrificial flesh take away from you your disaster, So that you can rejoice?"

But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, "Let's destroy the tree with its fruit, And let's cut him off from the land of the living, So that his name will no longer be remembered."

Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the people of Anathoth, who are seeking your life, saying: "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, so that you do not die by our hand";

"They have sown wheat but have harvested thorns, They have strained themselves to no profit. So be ashamed of your produce Because of the fierce anger of the LORD."

So I bought the undergarment in accordance with the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist.

So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD had commanded me.

'For as the undergarment clings to the waist of a man, so I made the entire household of Israel and the entire household of Judah cling to Me,' declares the LORD, 'so that they might be My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they did not listen.'

"Then I will smash them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together," declares the LORD. "I will not have compassion nor be troubled nor take pity so as to keep from destroying them."'"

"So I Myself have stripped your skirts off over your face, So that your shame will be seen.

This is what the LORD says to this people: "So much they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them; now He will remember their wrongdoing and call their sins to account."

So the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for a good outcome on behalf of this people.

Have You completely rejected Judah? Or have You loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We waited for peace, but nothing good came; And for a time of healing, but behold, terror!

"You who have forsaken Me," declares the LORD, "You keep going backward. So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am tired of relenting!

"She who gave birth to seven sons withers away; Her breathing is labored. Her sun has set while it was still day; She has been shamed and humiliated. So I will turn over their survivors to the sword Before their enemies," declares the LORD.

"So I will rescue you from the hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent."

'So I will hurl you off this land to the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, because I will show you no compassion.'

As they remember their children, So they remember their altars and their Asherim By green trees on the high hills.

"As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid, So is a person who makes a fortune, but unjustly; In the middle of his days it will abandon him, And in the end he will be a fool."

"Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks so as not to listen or accept discipline.