Study Desk

"Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who do not benefit them, Who are not a help or benefit, but a source of shame and also disgrace."

The pronouncement concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of distress and anguish, From where come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent, They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on camels' humps, To a people who will not benefit them;

Now go, write it on a tablet in their presence And inscribe it on a scroll, That it may serve in the time to come As a witness forever.

For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD;

Therefore this wrongdoing will be to you Like a breach about to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant,

Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter's jar, So ruthlessly shattered That a shard will not be found among its pieces To take fire from a hearth Or to scoop water from a cistern."

One thousand will flee at the threat of one man; You will flee at the threat of five, Until you are left like a signal post on a mountain top, And like a flag on a hill.

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.

Your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

And you will desecrate your carved images plated with silver, and your cast metal images plated with gold. You will scatter them as a filthy thing, and say to them, "Be gone!"

Then He will give you rain for your seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plentiful; on that day your livestock will graze in a wide pasture.

Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a remote place; His anger is burning and dense with smoke; His lips are filled with indignation, And His tongue is like a consuming fire;

His breath is like an overflowing river, Which reaches to the neck, To shake the nations back and forth in a sieve, And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads astray.

And the LORD will cause His voice of authority to be heard, And the descending of His arm to be seen in fierce anger, And in the flame of a consuming fire In cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones.

For Topheth has long been ready, Indeed, it has been prepared for the king. He has made it deep and large, A pyre of fire with plenty of wood; The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.

For this is what the LORD says to me: "As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, Against which a band of shepherds is called out, And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise, So will the LORD of armies come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill."

For on that day every person will reject his silver idols and his gold idols, which your hands have made for you as a sin.

And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not wielded by a man, And a sword not of man will devour him. So he will not escape the sword, And his young men will become forced laborers.

Behold, a king will reign righteously, And officials will rule justly.

Each will be like a refuge from the wind And a shelter from the storm, Like streams of water in a dry country, Like the shade of a huge rock in an exhausted land.