Study Desk

"But afterward I will reverse The captivity of the children of Ammon and restore their fortunes," Says the LORD.

"In those days and at that time," says the LORD, "the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will come up weeping [in repentance] as they come and seek the LORD their God [inquiring for and of Him].

Thus says the LORD of hosts, "The children of Israel are oppressed, And the children of Judah as well; And all who took them captive have held them tightly, They have refused to let them go.

Her adversaries have become her masters, Her enemies prosper; For the LORD has caused her grief Because of the multitude of her transgressions; Her young children have gone Into captivity before the enemy.

"I weep for these things; My eyes overflow with tears, Because a comforter, One who could restore my soul, is far away from me. My children are desolate and perishing, For the enemy has prevailed."

For He does not afflict willingly and from His heart Or grieve the children of men.

The hands of compassionate women Boiled their own children; They became food for them Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people [Judah].

And He said to me, "I am sending you, son of man, to the children of Israel, to a rebellious people [in both the north and the south] that have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have sinned and revolted against Me to this very day.

"I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD.'

"Go to the [Jewish] exiles [in Babylon], to the children of your people, and speak to them, whether they listen or not, and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD.'"

Then the LORD said, "Thus the children of Israel will eat their bread unclean and defiled among the nations where I will banish them."

'Further, I will send against you hunger and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; virulent disease and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the LORD, have spoken.'"

"I will also lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel in front of their [Canaanite] idols; and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.

"Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women; but do not touch or go near anyone on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary." So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple [who did not have the LORD'S mark on their foreheads].

"If I were to cause predatory beasts to pass through the land and they ravaged it and depopulated it of children, and it became desolate so that no one would pass through because of the predators,

"You slaughtered My children and offered them up to [worthless] idols, forcing them to pass through the [hideousness of the] fire.

"You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children. You are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your [spiritual] mother was a Hittite and your [spiritual] father an Amorite.

"But I said to their children in the wilderness, 'Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers nor observe their ordinances nor defile yourselves with their idols.

"Yet the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, nor were they careful to observe My ordinances, which, if a man keeps, he will live; they profaned My Sabbaths. Then I decided to pour out My wrath on them and finish My anger against them in the wilderness.

"For when they had killed their children [as offerings] to their idols, then they came the same day to My sanctuary to profane it [by daring to offer a sacrifice there also]. And behold, this they did within My house.