Study Desk

For by My strong words I told your fathers of the danger when I brought them up from the land of Egypt. I kept telling them even to this day, saying, "Listen to My voice."

For your gods are as many as your cities, O Judah. And your altars you have set up to burn special perfume to the false god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.

"So do not pray for these people. Do not lift up a cry or prayer for them. For I will not listen when they call to Me because of their trouble.

But, O Lord of All, Who is right as He judges, Who tests the heart and the mind, let me see You punish them. For I have put my cause before You.

None of them will be left. For I will bring much trouble to the men of Anathoth, in the year of their punishment."

But You know me, O Lord. You see me. And You test how my heart is with You. Take them off like sheep to be killed. Set them apart for the day of killing.

How long will the land be filled with sorrow? How long will the grass of every field dry up? For the sin of those who live in it, animals and birds have been taken away, because men have said, "He will not see what happens to us."

For even your brothers and those of your father's house have not been faithful to you. They have cried to you in a loud voice. Do not believe them, even if they say pleasing things to you."

On all the open hill-tops in the desert, destroyers have come. For the sword of the Lord destroys from one end of the land to the other. There is no peace for anyone.

Then if they will for sure learn the ways of My people, and promise by My name, ‘As the Lord lives,' even as they taught My people to promise by Baal, then they will be built up among My people.

These sinful people would not listen to My words. They walk in the strong-will of their own hearts and have gone to serve and worship other gods. So let them be just like this linen belt, which is good for nothing.

For as the belt holds on to a man's body, so I made the whole family of Israel and the whole family of Judah hold on to Me,' says the Lord. ‘This was so that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and an honor. But they would not listen.'

Listen and hear. Do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken.

Give honor to the Lord your God before He brings darkness and before you slip and fall on the dark mountains. You hope for light, but He will turn it into darkness and it will be very dark.

As for your sex sins and cries of desire, your sinful sex acts on the hills in the field, I have seen your hated sins. It is bad for you, O Jerusalem! How long will you be unclean?"

Their men of honor have sent their servants for water. They have come to the wells and found no water, and returned with their jars empty. They have been put to shame and troubled, and covered their heads.

The wild donkeys stand on the open hill-tops. They breathe hard for air like wild dogs. Their eyes become weak because there is nothing to eat.

"Even when our sins speak against us, O Lord, do something for the good of Your name. For we have fallen away from You many times. We have sinned against You.

You are the Hope of Israel, the One Who saves it in time of trouble. Why are You like a stranger in the land? Why are You like a traveler who has set up his tent for the night?

The Lord said to me, "Do not pray for the well-being of these people.