Study Desk

The dead will not live again, the ghosts will not rise again; for you punished and destroyed them, wiped out all memory of them.

Your dead will live, my corpses will rise; awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the morning dew, and the earth will bring the ghosts to life.

Come, my people, enter your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past.

For see! Adonai emerges from his place to punish those on earth for their sin. Then the earth will reveal the blood shed on it and no longer conceal its slain.

So the iniquity of Ya‘akov is atoned for by this, and removing his sin produces this result: he chops up all the altar stones like chalk — sacred poles and sun-pillars stand no more.

For the fortified city is alone, abandoned and deserted, like the desert. Calves graze and lie down there, stripping its branches bare.

When its harvest dries up, it is broken off; women come and set it on fire. For this is a people without understanding. Therefore he who made them will not pity them, he who formed them will show them no mercy.

On that day, Adonai -Tzva'ot will be a glorious crown, a brilliant diadem for the remnant of his people.

He will also be a spirit of justice for whoever sits as a judge, and a source of strength for those repelling enemy attacks at the gate.

So now the word of Adonai for them comes "precept by precept, precept by precept, line by line, line by line, a little here, a little there," so that when they walk, they stumble backward, and are broken, trapped and captured!

So listen to the word of Adonai , you scoffers, composing taunts for this people in Yerushalayim:

Because you said, "We made a covenant with death, we made a contract with Sh'ol. When the raging flood passes through, it will not touch us. For we have made lies our refuge and hid ourselves in falsehoods" —

As often as it passes through, it will take you, for it will pass through every morning, day after day, night after night; understanding the message will be sheer terror."

For, [as the saying goes,] "The bed is too short for a person to stretch, and the blanket too narrow [to protect him from cold] even if he crams himself in."

For Adonai will arise, as at Mount P'ratzim, and storm with rage, as in the Giv‘on Valley; so he can do his deed, his strange deed, and perform his task, his alien task.

Therefore, now, stop your scoffing, or your bonds will be further tightened; for I have heard from Adonai Elohim -Tzva'ot that destruction is decreed for the whole land.

When crushing grain for bread, one doesn't thresh it forever; one drives the horse and cart wheels over it but doesn't crush it to powder.

Woe to Ari'el [fireplace on God's altar, lion of God] — Ari'el, the city where David encamped! Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,

but then I will bring trouble to Ari'el. There will be mourning and moaning, as she becomes truly an ari'el for me.

It will be like a hungry man dreaming he's eating; but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty; or like a thirsty man dreaming he's drinking; but when he wakes up, he is dry and exhausted — it will be like this for the horde of all nations fighting against Mount Tziyon.