Study Desk

For the shepherds are stupid:They don’t seek the Lord.Therefore they have not prospered,and their whole flock is scattered.

Pour out your wrath on the nationsthat don’t recognize youand on the familiesthat don’t call on your name,for they have consumed Jacob;they have consumed him and finished him offand made his homeland desolate.

For I strongly warned your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt until today, warning them time and time again, ‘Obey me.’

“As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to me at the time of their disaster.

for I was like a docile lamb led to slaughter.I didn’t know that they had devised plots against me:“Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit;let’s cut him off from the land of the livingso that his name will no longer be remembered.”

But, Lord of Armies, who judges righteously,who tests heart and mind,let me see your vengeance on them,for I have presented my case to you.

They will have no remnant, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”

As for you, Lord, you know me; you see me.You test whether my heart is with you.Drag the wicked away like sheep to slaughterand set them apart for the day of killing.

How long will the land mournand the grass of every field wither?Because of the evil of its residents,animals and birds have been swept away,for the people have said,“He cannot see what our end will be.”

Over all the barren heights in the wildernessthe destroyers have come,for the Lord has a sword that devoursfrom one end of the earth to the other.No one has peace.

Just as underwear clings to one’s waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and of Judah to me”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“so that they might be my people for my fame, praise, and glory, but they would not obey.

And you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to fill all who live in this land—the kings who reign for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the residents of Jerusalem—with drunkenness.

Listen and pay attention. Do not be proud,for the Lord has spoken.

Give glory to the Lord your Godbefore he brings darkness,before your feet stumbleon the mountains at dusk.You wait for light,but he brings darkest gloomand makes total darkness.

But if you will not listen,my innermost being will weep in secretbecause of your pride.My eyes will overflow with tears,for the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.

Say to the king and the queen mother:Take a humble seat,for your glorious crownshave fallen from your heads.

This is your lot,what I have decreed for you—

Your adulteries and your lustful neighing,your depraved prostitutionon the hills, in the fields—I have seen your abhorrent acts.Woe to you, Jerusalem!You are unclean—for how long yet?

Their nobles send their servants for water.They go to the cisterns;they find no water;their containers return empty.They are ashamed and humiliated;they cover their heads.

Wild donkeys stand on the barren heightspanting for air like jackals.Their eyes failbecause there are no green plants.