Study Desk

"You sent my people to that faraway place, but I will get them and bring them back, and I will do to you what you have done to them.

The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem; his loud voice will thunder from that city, and the sky and the earth will shake. But the Lord will be a safe place for his people, a strong place of safety for the people of Israel.

But Egypt will become empty, and Edom an empty desert, because they were cruel to the people of Judah. They killed innocent people in that land.

But there will always be people living in Judah, and people will live in Jerusalem from now on.

"But it was I who destroyed the Amorites before them, who were tall like cedar trees and as strong as oaks— I destroyed them completely.

"But you made the Nazirites drink wine and told the prophets not to prophesy.

"I did not give you any food in your cities, and there was not enough to eat in any of your towns, but you did not come back to me," says the Lord .

"I held back the rain from you three months before harvest time. Then I let it rain on one city but not on another. Rain fell on one field, but another field got none and dried up.

People weak from thirst went from town to town for water, but they could not get enough to drink. Still you did not come back to me," says the Lord .

"I made your crops die from disease and mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards got larger, locusts ate your fig and olive trees. But still you did not come back to me," says the Lord .

"I sent disasters against you, as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with swords, and your horses were taken from you. I made you smell the stink from all the dead bodies, but still you did not come back to me," says the Lord .

"I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick pulled from a fire, but still you did not come back to me," says the Lord .

But do not look in Bethel or go to Gilgal, and do not go down to Beersheba. The people of Gilgal will be taken away as captives, and Bethel will become nothing."

You walk on poor people, forcing them to give you grain. You have built fancy houses of cut stone, but you will not live in them. You have planted beautiful vineyards, but you will not drink the wine from them.

If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won't accept them. You bring your best fellowship offerings of fattened cattle, but I will ignore them.

But let justice flow like a river, and let goodness flow like a never-ending stream.

You put off the day of punishment, but you bring near the day when you can do evil to others.

You drink wine by the bowlful and use the best perfumed lotions. But you are not sad over the ruin of Israel,

At that time there might be only ten people left alive in just one house, but they will also die.

Horses do not run on rocks, and people do not plow rocks with oxen. But you have changed fairness into poison; you have changed what is right into a bitter taste.