Study Desk

For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

THUS says the LORD: Keep judgment, and do justice; for my salvation will come soon and my righteousness will be revealed.

For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths and choose the things that please me and take hold of my covenant,

Even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

Yea, they are greedy dogs that can never have enough, they are so wicked that they cannot understand; they all have turned aside to their own way, every one for his own gain and his own advantage.

Come, they say, let us get wine, and let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more will be left over for us.

Behind the doors also and on the posts you have inscribed your remembrance; for you are carried away from me, and you are gone up, and you have enlarged your bed, and you have become one of them; you have loved their bed where you saw their nakedness.

For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, whose abode is high and holy, to the meek and the distressed in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of those who are in pain:

I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit proceeds from before me, and the breath, I have made it.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, for it cannot rest, its waters cast up creeping things and mire.

Behold, you fast for strife and quarreling, and to strike violently with the fist of wickedness; you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul, to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

Then you shall put your trust in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.

There is no one who calls for justice, neither is there any one who judges faithfully; they trust in vanity and speak lies; they conceive iniquity and bring forth grief.

Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope like men who have no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we groan as those who are near death.

We all roar like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us; our iniquities are with us, and our sins are well known: