Study Desk

For they did not practice my ordinances but rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers’ idols.

“‘As for you, house of Israel, this is what the Lord God says: Go and serve your idols, each of you. But afterward you will surely listen to me, and you will no longer defile my holy name with your gifts and idols.

For on my holy mountain, Israel’s high mountain—the declaration of the Lord God—there the entire house of Israel, all of them, will serve me in the land. There I will accept them and will require your contributions and choicest gifts, all your holy offerings.

There you will remember your ways and all your deeds by which you have defiled yourself, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evil things you have done.

You will know that I am the Lord, house of Israel, when I have dealt with you for the sake of my name rather than according to your evil ways and corrupt acts. This is the declaration of the Lord God.’”

It is sharpened for slaughter,polished to flash like lightning!Should we rejoice?The scepter of my son,the sword despises every tree.

“Cry out and wail, son of man, for it is against my people. It is against all the princes of Israel! They are given over to the sword with my people. Therefore strike your thigh in grief.

I have appointed a sword for slaughterat all their gates,so that their hearts may meltand many may stumble.Yes! It is ready to flash like lightning;it is drawn for slaughter.

For the king of Babylon stands at the split in the road, at the fork of the two roads, to practice divination: he shakes the arrows, consults the idols, and observes the liver.

And you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, the day has come for your punishment.

You will be fuel for the fire.Your blood will be spilled within the land.You will not be remembered,for I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

“As for you, son of man, will you pass judgment? Will you pass judgment against the city of blood? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.

You are to say, ‘This is what the Lord God says: A city that sheds blood within her walls so that her time of judgment has come and who makes idols for herself so that she is defiled!

Her prophets plaster for them with whitewash by seeing false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

I searched for a man among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land so that I might not destroy it, but I found no one.

The older one was named Oholah, and her sister was Oholibah. They became mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah represents Samaria and Oholibah represents Jerusalem.

Therefore, I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians she lusted for.

“For this is what the Lord God says: I am going to hand you over to those you hate, to those you turned away from in disgust.

They will treat you with hatred, take all you have worked for, and leave you stark naked, so that the shame of your debauchery will be exposed, both your depravity and promiscuity.

For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; they have committed adultery with their idols. And the children they bore to me they have sacrificed in the fire as food for the idols.