Study Desk

Lord, you will establish peace for us,for you have also done all our work for us.

Your dead will live; their bodies will rise.Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust!For you will be covered with the morning dew,and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.

Go, my people, enter your roomsand close your doors behind you.Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed.

For look, the Lord is coming from his placeto punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.The earth will reveal the blood shed on itand will no longer conceal her slain.

I am not angry.If only there were thorns and briers for me to battle,I would trample themand burn them to the ground.

Therefore Jacob’s iniquity will be atoned for in this way,and the result of the removal of his sin will be this:when he makes all the altar stoneslike crushed bits of chalk,no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.

For the fortified city will be desolate,pastures deserted and abandoned like a wilderness.Calves will graze there,and there they will spread out and strip its branches.

When its branches dry out, they will be broken off.Women will come and make fires with them,for they are not a people with understanding.Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them,and their Creator will not be gracious to them.

For he will speak to this peoplewith stammering speechand in a foreign language.

For you said, “We have made a covenant with Death,and we have an agreement with Sheol;when the overwhelming catastrophe passes through,it will not touch us,because we have made falsehood our refugeand have hidden behind treachery.”

For the Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim.He will rise in wrath, as at the Valley of Gibeon,to do his work, his unexpected work,and to perform his task, his unfamiliar task.

So now, do not scoff,or your shackles will become stronger.Indeed, I have heard from the Lord God of Armiesa decree of destruction for the whole land.

It will be like a hungry one who dreams he is eating,then wakes and is still hungry;and like a thirsty one who dreams he is drinking,then wakes and is still thirsty, longing for water.So it will be for all the many nationswho go to battle against Mount Zion.

For the Lord has poured out on youan overwhelming urge to sleep;he has shut your eyes (the prophets)and covered your heads (the seers).

For you the entire vision will be like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read it, because it is sealed.”

For the ruthless one will vanish,the scorner will disappear,and all those who lie in wait with evil intentwill be killed—

those who, with their speech,accuse a person of wrongdoing,who set a trap for the one mediating at the city gateand without cause deprive the righteous of justice.

For when he sees his children,the work of my hands within his nation,they will honor my name,they will honor the Holy One of Jacoband stand in awe of the God of Israel.

For though his princes are at Zoanand his messengers reach as far as Hanes,

everyone will be ashamedbecause of a people who can’t help.They are of no benefit, they are no help;they are good for nothing but shame and disgrace.