Study Desk

For I [am] Jehovah, I speak, The word that I speak -- it is done, It is not prolonged any more, For, in your days, O rebellious house, I speak a word, and I have done it, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

`Son of man, lo, the house of Israel are saying, The vision that he is seeing [is] for many days, and of times far off he is prophesying,

Ye have not gone up into breaches, Nor do ye make a fence for the house of Israel, To stand in battle in a day of Jehovah.

The prophets of Israel who are prophesying concerning Jerusalem, And who are seeing for her a vision of peace, And there is no peace, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

And thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Wo to those sowing pillows for all joints of the arm, And to those making the kerchiefs For the head of every stature -- to hunt souls, The souls do ye hunt of My people? And the souls ye have do ye keep alive?

Yea, ye pierce Me concerning My people, For handfuls of barley, And for pieces of bread, to put to death Souls that should not die, And to keep alive souls that should not live, By your lying to My people -- hearkening to lies.

And I have torn your kerchiefs, And delivered My people out of your hand, And they are no more in your hand for a prey, And ye have known that I [am] Jehovah.

`Therefore, speak with them, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Every one of the house of Israel who causeth his idols to go up unto his heart, and the stumbling-block of his iniquity setteth over-against his face, and hath gone in unto the prophet -- I Jehovah have given an answer to him for this, for the abundance of his idols,

for every one of the house of Israel, and of the sojourners who doth sojourn in Israel, who is separated from after Me, and doth cause his idols to go up unto his heart, and the stumbling-block of his iniquity setteth over-against his face, and hath come in unto the prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I, Jehovah, have answered him for Myself;

and I have set My face against that man, and made him for a sign, and for similes, and I have cut him off from the midst of My people, and ye have known that I [am] Jehovah.

so that the house of Israel do not wander any more from after Me, nor are defiled any more with all their transgressions, and they have been to Me for a people, and I am to them for God -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

`Son of man, the land -- when it sinneth against Me to commit a trespass, and I have stretched out My hand against it, and broken for it the staff of bread, and sent into it famine, and cut off from it man and beast --

and these three men in its midst: I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah -- they deliver not sons and daughters, for they alone are delivered.

`For thus said the Lord Jehovah: Although My four sore judgments -- sword, and famine, and wild beast, and pestilence -- I have sent unto Jerusalem, to cut off from it man and beast,

And they have comforted you, for ye see their way and their doings, and ye have known that not for nought have I done all that which I have done in her -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

Is wood taken from it to use for work? Do they take of it a pin to hang any vessel on it?

Lo, to the fire it hath been given for fuel, Its two ends hath the fire eaten, And its midst hath been scorched! Is it profitable for work?

Lo, in its being perfect it is not used for work, How much less, when fire hath eaten of it, And it is scorched, Hath it been used yet for work?

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: As the vine-tree among trees of the forest, That I have given to the fire for fuel, So I have given the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

As to thy nativity, in the day thou wast born, Thou -- thy navel hath not been cut, And in water thou wast not washed for ease, And thou hast not been salted at all, And thou hast not been swaddled at all.