Study Desk

They were well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor's wife.

Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her; they shall pitch their tents around her; they shall pasture, each in his place.

"‘Cut off your hair and cast it away; raise a lamentation on the bare heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.'

I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?' Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.

Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.

Hear, O women, the word of the Lord , and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a lament, and each to her neighbor a dirge.

Thus says the Lord : "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,

But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them.

Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name.

I know, O Lord , that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, and on the peoples that call not on your name, for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not."

But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more."

And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.