Study Desk

They take what is on the right hand but still are hungry. They eat what is in the left hand but are not filled. Each of them eats the flesh of his own children.

Manasseh goes against Ephraim, and Ephraim goes against Manasseh. And together they are against Judah. Even with all this, the Lord's anger does not turn away. His hand is still held out.

Nothing will be left to do but to bow down among those who are being taken to prison, or fall among those who are killed. Even with all this, His anger does not turn away. His hand is still held out.

So when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will punish the proud heart of the king of Assyria and his proud spirit.

The light of Israel and his Holy One will become a fire. And it will burn and destroy his thorns and thistles in one day.

And the rest of his trees will be so few that a child could write them down.

The Lord of All will punish them like He punished Midian at the rock of Oreb. His special stick will be over the sea and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt.

He has come against Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he left his bags.

Yet today he will stop at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the people of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

Then One will come from the family of Jesse. A branch will grow out of his roots.

He will be glad in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what His eyes see, or decide by what His ears hear.

But He will judge the poor in a right and good way. He will be fair in what He decides for the people of the earth who have much trouble. He will punish the earth with His powerful mouth, and kill the sinful with the breath of His lips.

He will wear a belt of what is right and good and faithful around His body.

The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra. And another child will put his hand in the hole of a snake whose bite is poison.

In that day the nations will turn to the One from the family of Jesse. He will be honored by the people as someone special to see. And His place of rest will be full of His shining-greatness.

In that day the Lord will put out His hand a second time to bring back His people who are left. He will bring them back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

The Lord will dry up all the tongue of the Sea of Egypt. He will wave His hand over the Euphrates River with His burning wind, and will break it into seven rivers. Men will be able to walk over it with dry feet.

And there will be a road from Assyria for those of His people who will be left just as it was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

In that day you will say, "Give thanks to the Lord. Call on His name. Make known His works among the people. Help them remember that His name is honored."

They are coming from a far country, from the end of the heavens. The Lord and all He is using to show His anger are coming to destroy the whole land.