Study Desk

a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against them.

Look! He comes up like clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles— woe to us, for we are ruined!

For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims disaster from Mount Ephraim.

My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

"For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good."

For thus says the Lord : The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.

For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor, anguish as of one bringing forth her first child, the cry of daughter Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands, "Woe is me! I am fainting before killers!"

O Lord , do your eyes not look for truth? You have struck them, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to turn back.

Then I said, "These are only the poor, they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the Lord , the law of their God.

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

Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord ; and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?

Go up through her vine-rows and destroy, but do not make a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not the Lord 's.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly faithless to me, says the Lord .

The prophets are nothing but wind, for the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them!

Do you not fear me? says the Lord ; Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail, though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

They do not say in their hearts, "Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest."

For scoundrels are found among my people; they take over the goods of others. Like fowlers they set a trap; they catch human beings.

Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord , and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?

Flee for safety, O children of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looms out of the north, and great destruction.