Study Desk

Should bad be given in return for good? Yet they have dug a deep hole for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good for them, to turn Your anger away from them.

May a cry be heard from their houses when You bring an army upon them by surprise. For they have dug a deep hole to take me, and have hidden traps for my feet.

For the Lord says, ‘See, I am going to make you a fear to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of those who hate them while you look on. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. And he will carry them away in chains to Babylon and will kill them with the sword.

I will give over all the riches of this city, all that its people have worked for, and all its things of much worth. Even all the riches of the kings of Judah I will give to those who hate them. They will take their things, and take hold of them, and carry them to Babylon.

For whenever I speak, I cry out. I tell of fighters and destroyers. For the Word of the Lord has become a shame and a cause of laughing at me all day long.

For I have heard many speaking in secret, saying, "Fear and trouble is on every side! Speak against him! Yes, let us speak against him!" All my trusted friends, watching for my fall, say, "It may be that he will be fooled. Then we can get power over him and punish him."

But the Lord is with me like a powerful one who causes fear. So those who make it hard for me will fall and not have power over me. They will be put to much shame, because their plans have not gone well. Their shame will last forever and will not be forgotten.

O Lord of All, You test those who are right and good. You see the mind and the heart. Let me see You punish them, for I have given my cause to You.

Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For He has taken the soul of the one in need from the hand of the sinful.

For he did not kill me before I was born, so that my mother's body would have been my grave.

"Will you speak to the Lord about us? For King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is making war against us. It may be that the Lord will do something for us like He did in times past, and make him leave us."

After this," says the Lord, "I will give over Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants, and the people who were not killed in this city by the disease, the sword, and hunger. I will give them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of those who hate them, and into the hand of those who want to kill them. And he will kill them with the sword. He will not let them live or have pity for them."'

For I have set My face against this city for trouble and not for good," says the Lord. "It will be given to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire."'

O house of David, the Lord says, "Do what is right every morning. Take the person who has been robbed away from the one who has made it hard for him. So My anger will not go out like fire and burn with no one to put it out, because of the sinful things you have done.

I will punish you for what has come of what you have done," says the Lord. "I will start a fire among your trees, and it will destroy all that is around it."'"

The Lord says, "Do what is right and fair and good, and take the one who has been robbed away from the power of the one who has made it hard for him. Do not hurt or do wrong to the stranger, the one whose parents have died, or the woman whose husband has died. And do not kill those who are not guilty in this place.

For if you will obey this word, then kings will come through the gates of this house and sit on the throne of David. They will be in war-wagons and on horses, together with their servants and their people.

For the Lord says about the house of the king of Judah: "You are like Gilead to Me, or like the top of Lebanon. Yet I will be sure to make you like a desert, like cities without people.

I will send destroyers against you, each with his things for fighting. And they will cut down your best cedar trees and throw them on the fire.

Do not cry for the one who is dead or have sorrow for him. But cry all the time for the one who goes away, for he will never return or see the land of his birth again.