Study Desk

Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, God of Israel, Savior!

For this is what the LORD says, He who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it as a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited): "I am the LORD, and there is no one else.

"I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek Me in a wasteland'; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are right.

"Gather yourselves and come; Come together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge, Who carry around their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save.

"Declare and present your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this long ago? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.

Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over; Their idols have become loads for the animals and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, A load for the weary animal.

"Those who lavish gold from the bag And weigh silver on the scale, Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; They bow down, indeed they worship it.

Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a distant country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, I will certainly do it.

"Come down and sit in the dust, Virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.

"Yet you said, 'I will be a queen forever.' These things you did not consider Nor remember the outcome of them.

"Now, then, hear this, you luxuriant one, Who lives securely, Who says in her heart, 'I am, and there is no one besides me. I will not sit as a widow, Nor know the loss of children.'

"Behold, they have become like stubble, Fire burns them; They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame; There will be no coal to warm by Nor a fire to sit before!

"You have not heard, you have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open, Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; And you have been called a rebel from birth.

"If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a sharpened arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver.

He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the protected ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

This is what the LORD says: "At a favorable time I answered You, And on a day of salvation I helped You; And I will watch over You and make You a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to give as inheritances the deserted hereditary lands;

"I will make all My mountains a road, And My highways will be raised up.

"Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

"Raise your eyes and look around; All of them gather together, they come to you. As I live," declares the LORD, "You will certainly put them all on as jewelry and bind them on as a bride.