Study Desk

"I will throw filth on you And declare you worthless, And set you up as a spectacle.

You too will become drunk, You will be hidden. You too will search for a refuge from the enemy.

Draw for yourself water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!

There fire will consume you, The sword will cut you down; It will consume you as the creeping locust consumes a crop. Multiply yourself like the creeping locust, Multiply yourself like the migratory locust.

Your courtiers are like the migratory locust. Your officials are like a swarm of locusts Settling in the stone shelters on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, And the place where they are is not known.

"Look among the nations! Watch! Be horrified! Be frightened speechless! For I am accomplishing a work in your days— You would not believe it even if you were told!

The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they rejoice and are joyful.

Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net And burn incense to their fishing net, Because through these things their catch is large, And their food is plentiful.

"Will all of these not take up a song of ridicule against him, Even a saying and insinuations against him And say, 'Woe to him who increases what is not his— For how long— And makes himself rich with debts!'

"You have planned a shameful thing for your house By bringing many peoples to an end; So you are sinning against yourself.

"Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, And founds a town with violence!

"What benefit is a carved image when its maker has carved it, Or a cast metal image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols.

"Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, 'Awake!' To a mute stone, 'Arise!' That is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, Yet there is no breath at all inside it.

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near, Because the LORD has prepared a sacrifice, He has consecrated His guests.

"And on that day," declares the LORD, "There will be the sound of a cry from the Fish Gate, Wailing from the Second Quarter, And a loud crash from the hills.

That day is a day of anger, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness,

A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers.

Neither their silver nor their gold Will be able to save them On the day of the LORD'S anger; And all the earth will be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make a complete end, Indeed a horrifying one, Of all the inhabitants of the earth.

For Gaza will be abandoned, And Ashkelon will become a desolation; The inhabitants of Ashdod will be driven out at noon, And Ekron will be uprooted.