Study Desk

Therefore my inner being sounds like a harp for Moab. And my heart for Kir-hareseth.

But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as a hired worker would count them, the glory of Moab will become contemptible along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and impotent."

The pronouncement concerning Damascus: "Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city And will become a fallen ruin.

Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives on the topmost branch, Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree, Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

On that day their strong cities will be like abandoned places in the forest, Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel; And the land will be a desolation.

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation And have not remembered the rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.

On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in, And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom; But the harvest will flee On a day of illness and incurable pain.

The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, But He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, And be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind, Or like whirling dust before a gale.

Which sends messengers by the sea, Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, To a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation Whose land the rivers divide.

All you who inhabit the world, and live on earth, As soon as a flag is raised on the mountains, you will see it, And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

For this is what the LORD has told me: "I will quietly look from My dwelling place Like dazzling heat in the sunshine, Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

For before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms And the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, And remove and tear away the spreading branches.

At that time a gift of tribute will be brought to the LORD of armies From a people tall and smooth, From a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation, Whose land the rivers divide— To the place of the name of the LORD of armies, to Mount Zion.

The pronouncement concerning Egypt: Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

"Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a cruel master, And a mighty king will rule over them," declares the Lord GOD of armies.

The canals will emit a stench, The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up; The reeds and rushes will rot away.

And the fishermen will grieve, And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn, And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.

The officials of Zoan are mere fools; The advice of Pharaoh's wisest advisers has become stupid. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?

The LORD has mixed within her a spirit of distortion; They have led Egypt astray in all that it does, As a drunken person staggers in his vomit.

The land of Judah will become a cause of shame to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in great fear because of the plan of the LORD of armies which He is making against them.