Study Desk

"Indeed, all Israel has violated Your Law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has gushed forth on us, along with the oath which is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.

"So He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great disaster; for under the entire heaven there has not been done anything like what was done in Jerusalem.

"So the LORD has kept the disaster in store and brought it on us; for the LORD our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.

"So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his pleas, and for Your sake, Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary.

"At the beginning of your pleas the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, because you are highly esteemed; so pay attention to the message and gain understanding of the vision.

"So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress.

So I was left alone and saw this great vision; yet no strength was left in me, for my complexion turned to a deathly pallor, and I retained no strength.

Then he said, "Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am leaving, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come.

"And his sons will mobilize and assemble a multitude of great forces; and one of them will keep on coming and overflow and pass through, so that he may again wage war up to his fortress.

"So he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and not be found.

"And he will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the South with a large army; so the king of the South will mobilize an extremely large and mighty army for war; but he will not stand, because schemes will be devised against him.

"For ships of Kittim will come against him; therefore he will withdraw in fear and will return and curse the holy covenant and take action; so he will come back and pay attention to those who abandon the holy covenant.

But as for me, I heard but did not understand; so I said, "My lord, what will be the outcome of these events?"

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

"Therefore, behold, I will obstruct her way with thorns, And I will build a stone wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.

"So now I will uncover her lewdness Before the eyes of her lovers, And no one will rescue her from My hand.

"I will punish her for the days of the Baals When she used to offer sacrifices to them And adorn herself with her nose ring and jewelry, And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me," declares the LORD.

"For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, So that they will no longer be mentioned by their names.

So I purchased her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and a homer and a lethech of barley.

Then I said to her, "You shall live with me for many days. You shall not play the prostitute, nor shall you have another man; so I will also be toward you."