Study Desk

"Who knows, God may turn and relent, and turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish."

When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, then God relented of the disaster which He had declared He would bring on them. So He did not do it.

"So now, LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life."

So the LORD God designated a plant, and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to relieve him of his discomfort. And Jonah was overjoyed about the plant.

And when the sun came up God designated a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint, and he begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life!"

They covet fields, so they seize them; And houses, so they take them. They exploit a man and his house, A person and his inheritance.

'Do not prophesy,' so they prophesy. But if they do not prophesy about these things, Insults will not be turned back.

"The one who breaks through goes up before them; They break through, pass through the gate, and go out by it. So their king passes on before them, And the LORD at their head."

Many nations will come and say, "Come and let's go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the house of the God of Jacob, So that He may teach us about His ways, And that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion will go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

"Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, For I will make your horn iron, And I will make your hoofs bronze, So that you may pulverize many peoples, And dedicate to the LORD their unjust profit, And their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

"I will eliminate your carved images And your memorial stones from among you, So that you will no longer bow down To the work of your hands.

"My people, remember now What Balak king of Moab planned And what Balaam son of Beor answered him, And what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, So that you might know the righteous acts of the LORD."

"So also I will make you sick, striking you down, Making you desolate because of your sins.

As for evil, both hands do it well. The leader asks for a bribe, also the judge, And the great one speaks the capricious desire of his soul; So they plot it together.

This is what the LORD says: "Though they are at full strength and so they are many, So also they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer.

"So now, I will break his yoke from upon you, And I will tear your shackles to pieces."

Then the LORD answered me and said, "Write down the vision And inscribe it clearly on tablets, So that one who reads it may run.

"Furthermore, wine betrays an arrogant man, So that he does not achieve his objective. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all the nations And collects to himself all the peoples.

"You have planned a shameful thing for your house By bringing many peoples to an end; So you are sinning against yourself.

"Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink; To you who mix in your venom even to make your neighbors drunk, So as to look at their genitalia!