Study Desk

For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; And they have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore they go their way like sheep. They are oppressed, because there is no shepherd.

They shall be as mighty men, Treading down muddy streets in the battle; And they shall fight, because Yahweh is with them; And the riders on horses will be confounded.

"I will strengthen the house of Judah, And I will save the house of Joseph, And I will bring them back; For I have mercy on them; And they will be as though I had not cast them off: For I am Yahweh their God, and I will hear them.

I will signal for them, and gather them; For I have redeemed them; And they will increase as they have increased.

I will sow them among the peoples; And they will remember me in far countries; And they will live with their children, and will return.

I will strengthen them in Yahweh; And they will walk up and down in his name," says Yahweh.

For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land," says Yahweh; "but, behold, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor's hand, and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them."

I said to them, "If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them." So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they will devour all the surrounding peoples, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem.

I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.

It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will no more be remembered; and also I will cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land.

I will bring the third part into the fire, And will refine them as silver is refined, And will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, 'It is my people;' And they will say, 'Yahweh is my God.'"

This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh will consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will consume away in their sockets, and their tongue will consume away in their mouth.

It will happen in that day, that a great panic from Yahweh will be among them; and they will lay hold everyone on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand will rise up against the hand of his neighbor.

Whereas Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;" thus says Yahweh of Hosts, "They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them 'The Wicked Land,' even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever."

For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Hosts.

and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.

Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.'

They shall be mine," says Yahweh of Hosts, "my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son. They shall call his name Immanuel;" which is, being interpreted, "God with us."