Study Desk

For you have forgotten the God Who saves you. You have not remembered the rock where you are safe. So you plant beautiful plants, and put them with the vine-cuttings of a strange god.

For the Lord has said to me, "I will be quiet and watch from the place where I live, like shining heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of fog in the heat of gathering time."

For before the gathering time, as soon as the bud blossoms and the grape is ready to eat, He will cut off the new branches with knives and will cut away the spreading branches.

They will be left for the birds of the mountains and for the wild animals of the earth. The birds will spend the summer eating them. And all the wild animals of the earth will eat them during the winter.

Then the spirit of the Egyptians will become weak within them. And I will bring their plans to nothing. They will go to false gods and spirits of the dead for help, and to those who speak with spirits of the dead and use their secret ways.

The fishermen will cry in sorrow. All those who fish for a living in the Nile River will be filled with sorrow. And those who put out nets on its waters will become weak.

It will be something special to see, to make the Lord of All known in the land of Egypt. For they will cry to the Lord because of those who make it hard for them. And He will send a Powerful One to save them, and He will take them out of trouble.

The Lord said, "My servant Isaiah has gone without clothing and shoes for three years as something special to be seen against Egypt and Cush.

The people living on this island will say in that day, ‘See, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped, and to whom we ran for help to be saved from the king of Assyria. Now how can we get away?'"

For this reason my body is full of suffering. Pains have taken hold of me like the pains of a woman giving birth. I am so troubled that I cannot hear. I am so afraid that I cannot see.

My mind turns. Fear has come over me. The evening I have waited so long for has been turned into a time of shaking with fear.

For the Lord says to me, "Go, set a man to keep watch. Let him tell what he sees.

Bring water for the thirsty. O people of the land of Tema, give bread to the one who is running from trouble.

For the Lord said to me, "In a year, as the servant would count it, all the greatness of Kedar will come to an end.

And the rest of the men who use the bow, the strong men of the sons of Kedar, will be few. For the Lord God of Israel has spoken."

For the Lord God of All has a day of fear, crushing down, and trouble in the Valley of Vision. There is a breaking down of walls and a crying out to the mountain.

You made a place to store water between the two walls for the waters of the old pool. But you did not trust in God Who made it. You did not think about Him Who planned it long ago.

But instead, there is joy and happiness, killing of cattle and sheep, eating of meat, and drinking of wine. You say, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

But the Lord of All has made Himself known to me. The Lord God of All says, "For sure you will not be forgiven for this sin until you die."

‘What right do you have here? Who told you that you could cut out a grave for yourself here? You cut out a grave on a high place! You cut a resting place for yourself in the rock!