Study Desk

For this is what the LORD spoke to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people:

I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those in distress. In the past He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor the Way to the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles:

For the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor You have shattered as in the day of Midian.

For every trampling boot of battle and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets which roll upward in columns of smoke.

By the wrath of the LORD of Hosts the land is scorched, and the people are fuel for the fire. Not one will spare his brother.

What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, "I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes."

For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers.

For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

For in just a very little while My wrath will be spent and My anger will turn to their destruction."

They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is full of water.

On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His place of rest will be glorious.

He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

The LORD will devote to destruction the gulf of the Egyptian Sea; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates. He will split it into seven streams, for men to cross with dry sandals.