Study Desk

"Then I said, 'How I would set you among My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!' And I said, 'You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from following Me.'

"However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover, So you have dealt treacherously with Me, House of Israel," declares the LORD.

A voice is heard on the bare heights, The weeping, the pleading of the sons of Israel. Because they have perverted their way, They have forgotten the LORD their God.

"Certainly the hills are a deception, Commotion on the mountains. Certainly in the LORD our God Is the salvation of Israel.

"Raise a flag toward Zion! Take refuge, do not stand still, For I am bringing evil from the north, And great destruction.

"A lion has gone up from his thicket, And a destroyer of nations has set out; He has gone out from his place To make your land a waste. Your cities will be ruins, Without an inhabitant.

Then I said, "Oh, Lord GOD! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'You will have peace'; yet a sword touches the throat."

At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness, in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse,

a wind too strong for this—will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them."

For a voice declares from Dan, And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.

"Report it to the nations, now! Proclaim to Jerusalem, 'Enemies are coming from a remote country, And they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.

'Like watchmen of a field they are against her all around, Because she has rebelled against Me,' declares the LORD.

I looked at the earth, and behold, it was a formless and desolate emptiness; And to the heavens, and they had no light.

I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were pulled down Before the LORD, before His fierce anger.

For this is what the LORD says: "The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.

For I heard a voice cry as of a woman in labor, The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child. The voice of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, Stretching out her hands, saying, "Ah, woe to me, for I faint before murderers."

"Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem, And look and take notice. And seek in her public squares, If you can find a person, If there is one who does justice, who seeks honesty, Then I will forgive her.

Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them, A wolf of the deserts will destroy them, A leopard is watching their cities. Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces, Because their wrongdoings are many, Their apostasies are numerous.

"Shall I not punish them for these things?" declares the LORD, "And shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?

"Go up through her vine rows and destroy, But do not execute a complete destruction; Strip away her branches, For they are not the LORD'S.