Study Desk

For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: "Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns.

Raise a signal flag toward Zion. Seek refuge! Do not delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, and terrible destruction.

So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us."

a wind too strong for that comes from Me. Now I will also pronounce judgments against them."

Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!

For a voice resounds from Dan, proclaiming disaster from Mount Ephraim.

My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of battle.

Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.

"For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they do not know how to do good."

For this is what the LORD says: "The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.

I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child-the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands: 'Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!'"

O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

Then I said, "They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.

Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces. For their rebellious acts are many, and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.

Should I not punish them for these things?" declares the LORD. "Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to Me," declares the LORD.

The prophets are but wind, for the LORD's word is not in them. So let their own words be done to them."

And when the people ask, 'For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' You are to tell them, 'Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.'

They have not said in their hearts, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.'