Study Desk

For they flee from the swords— from the drawn sword and from the battle-ready bow and from the severity of the battle.

For this is what the sovereign master has told me: "Within exactly one year all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end.

For the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, has planned a day of panic, defeat, and confusion. In the Valley of Vision people shout and cry out to the hill.

They removed the defenses of Judah. At that time you looked for the weapons in the House of the Forest.

You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool— but you did not trust in the one who made it; you did not depend on the one who formed it long ago!

At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth.

But look, there is outright celebration! You say, "Kill the ox and slaughter the sheep, eat meat and drink wine. Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

‘What right do you have to be here? What relatives do you have buried here? Why do you chisel out a tomb for yourself here? He chisels out his burial site in an elevated place, he carves out his tomb on a cliff.

Here is a message about Tyre: Wail, you large ships, for the port is too devastated to enter! From the land of Cyprus this news is announced to them.

Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea says this, O fortress of the sea: "I have not gone into labor or given birth; I have not raised young men or brought up young women."

Who planned this for royal Tyre, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the dignitaries of the earth?

Look at the land of the Chaldeans, these people who have lost their identity! The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals. They erected their siege towers, demolished its fortresses, and turned it into a heap of ruins.

Wail, you large ships, for your fortress is destroyed!

At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the typical life span of a king. At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song:

Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord . They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord 's presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes.

The earth will be completely devastated and thoroughly ransacked. For the Lord has decreed this judgment.

The earth is defiled by its inhabitants, for they have violated laws, disregarded the regulation, and broken the permanent treaty.

So a treaty curse devours the earth; its inhabitants pay for their guilt. This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, and are reduced to just a handful of people.

The one who runs away from the sound of the terror will fall into the pit; the one who climbs out of the pit, will be trapped by the snare. For the floodgates of the heavens are opened up and the foundations of the earth shake.

They will be imprisoned in a pit, locked up in a prison, and after staying there for a long time, they will be punished.