Study Desk

Her uncleanness was in her garment's seams; She did not think of her future. So she has fallen in an astonishing way; She has no comforter. "See, LORD, my affliction, For the enemy has honored himself!"

"They have heard that I groan; There is no one to comfort me, All my enemies have heard of my disaster; They are joyful that You have done it. Oh, that You would bring the day which You have proclaimed, So that they will become like me.

Your prophets have seen for you Worthless and deceptive visions; And they have not exposed your wrongdoing So as to restore you from captivity, But they have seen for you worthless and misleading pronouncements.

He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

So I say, "My strength has failed, And so has my hope from the LORD."

You have veiled Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.

They hunted our steps So that we could not walk in our streets; Our end drew near, Our days were finished For our end had come.

Why will You forget us forever? Why do You abandon us for so long?

Restore us to You, LORD, so that we may be restored; Renew our days as of old,

Like the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.

"So I am sending you to those who are impudent and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says:'

So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll.

So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of the LORD was strong on me.

"When I say to the wicked, 'You will certainly die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way so that he may live, that wicked person shall die for wrongdoing, but his blood I will require from your hand.

So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory that I saw by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face.

"And as for you, son of man, they will put ropes around you and bind you with them so that you do not go out among them.

"Moreover, I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be unable to speak and will not be a man who reprimands them, since they are a rebellious house.

"Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and direct your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

"For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their wrongdoing, 390 days; so you shall bear the wrongdoing of the house of Israel.

"Now behold, I will put ropes around you so that you cannot turn from your one side to your other until you have completed the days of your siege.