Study Desk

"But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself," declares the LORD, "that this house will become a place of ruins."'"

For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: "You are like Gilead to Me, Like the summit of Lebanon; Yet most assuredly I will make you a wilderness, Cities that are not inhabited.

Who says, 'I will build myself a large house With spacious upstairs rooms, And cut out its windows, Paneling it with cedar and painting it bright red.'

"Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar? Did your father not eat and drink And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well for him.

"He will be buried with a donkey's burial, Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

"You who live in Lebanon, Nested in the cedars, How you will groan when sharp pains come on you, Pain like a woman in childbirth!

"As I live," declares the LORD, "even if Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull you off;

"Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar? Or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out And cast into a land that they had not known?

"This is what the LORD says: 'Write this man down as childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man among his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.'"

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land.

As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, All my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, And like a man overcome by wine, Because of the LORD And because of His holy words.

"Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: The committing of adultery and walking in deceit; And they strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

This is what the LORD of armies says: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They tell a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the LORD.

"Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.

"Am I a God who is near," declares the LORD, "And not a God far off?

"Can a person hide himself in hiding places So that I do not see him?" declares the LORD. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the LORD.

"I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, 'I had a dream, I had a dream!'

"The prophet who has a dream may report his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word truthfully. What does straw have in common with grain?" declares the LORD.

"Is My word not like fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

"Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you, saying, 'What is the pronouncement of the LORD?' then you shall say to them, 'What pronouncement?' The LORD declares, 'I will abandon you.'