Study Desk

Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.

For the people of Judah have done evil in My sight, declares the LORD. They have set up their abominations in the house that bears My name, and so have defiled it.

So beware! The days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.

The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.

I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland."

Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners, for from the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from the prophet to the priest, all practice deceit.

"Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

"For behold, I will send snakes among you, poisonous vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you," declares the LORD.

For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.

If only I had a traveler's lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.

"They bend their tongue like their bows; lies instead of truth prevail in the land, for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account," declares the LORD.

"Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.

Therefore, this is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Behold, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the daughter of My people?

Their tongues are deadly arrows; they speak deception. With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him.

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

I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.

"And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.

For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How devastated we are! How great is our shame, for we have abandoned the land because our dwellings have been torn down.'"