Study Desk

Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord , to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

For you have forsaken the ways of your people, O house of Jacob. Indeed they are full of diviners from the east and of soothsayers like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with foreigners.

For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high;

On that day people will throw away to the moles and to the bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship,

Turn away from mortals, who have only breath in their nostrils, for of what account are they?

For now the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and staff— all support of bread, and all support of water—

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord , defying his glorious presence.

The look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.

Tell the innocent how fortunate they are, for they shall eat the fruit of their labors.

Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are, for what their hands have done shall be done to them.

Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,

Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!

Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land!

For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.

Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!

Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become rotten, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.