Study Desk

This is why I am full of Adonai 's fury; I am weary of holding it back. "Pour it out on the children in the street and on the groups of young men gathered; for husbands and wives will be taken together, seniors as well as the very old.

Hear, oh earth! I am going to bring disaster on this people; it is the consequence of their own way of thinking; for they pay no attention to my words; and as for my Torah, they reject it.

"Yes, now I am sending snakes among you, vipers that no one can charm, and they will bite you," says Adonai .

My grief has no cure, I am sick at heart.

instead, let the boaster boast about this: that he understands and knows me — that I am Adonai , practicing grace, justice and righteousness in the land; for in these things I take pleasure," says Adonai .

class="poetry"> I wish I were out in the desert, in some travelers' lodge — then I could get away from my people and distance myself from them! "Indeed they are all adulterers, a band of traitors is what they are. They bend their tongues, their ‘bow' of falsehood, and hold sway in the land, but not for truth. For they go from evil to evil, and me they do not know," says Adonai . Everyone, be on guard against your neighbor, don't trust even a brother; for every brother is out to trick you, and every neighbor goes around gossiping. Everyone deceives his neighbor, no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to lie, they wear themselves out with sinning. "You inhabit a world of deceit; deceitfully they refuse to know me," says Adonai . "Therefore," says Adonai -Tzva'ot, "I will refine them and test them. What else can I do with the daughter of my people? Their tongues are sharpened arrows; with their mouths they speak deceit — they say nice words to their neighbors, while inwardly plotting against them. Should I not punish them for these things?" asks Adonai . "Should I not take vengeance on such a nation?" I weep and wail for the mountains and lament over the desert pastures, because they have been burned up; no one passes through; they no longer hear the sound of cattle; the birds and wild animals have fled, are gone. "I will make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins, turn it into a lair for jackals, and make the cities of Y'hudah desolate, with no one living there." Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of Adonai spoken, so that he can proclaim it? Why has the land perished and been laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through? Adonai answers: "Because they abandoned my Torah, which I set before them, and neither listened to what I said nor lived accordingly, but have lived by their own hearts' stubbornness and by the ba‘alim, as their ancestors taught them — therefore," says Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: "I will feed this people bitter wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink. I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known. I will send the sword after them until I have wiped them out." Thus says Adonai -Tzva'ot: "Mark this, then summon the mourning women, so that they will come; send for those who are best [at mourning], so that they will come: ‘Have them hurry and wail for us, so our eyes will be wet from crying, and our eyelids gush with tears.' For the sound of wailing is heard from Tziyon: ‘We are utterly ruined, we are completely ashamed, because we have left the land, and our homes have been torn down!'" You women, hear the word of Adonai ! Let your ears receive the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail, have each teach her friend how to lament: "Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, it has cut down children in the streets and young people in the public places." Say: "Here is what Adonai says: ‘The corpses of people are scattered like dung in an open field, like sheaves left behind by the reaper with no one to gather them.'" Here is what Adonai says: "The wise man should not boast of his wisdom, the powerful should not boast of his power, the wealthy should not boast of his wealth; instead, let the boaster boast about this: that he understands and knows me — that I am Adonai , practicing grace, justice and righteousness in the land; for in these things I take pleasure," says Adonai . "The days are coming," says Adonai , "when I will punish all those who have been circumcised in their uncircumcision — Egypt, Y'hudah, Edom, the people of ‘Amon and Mo'av, and all those living in the desert who cut the edges [of their beard]: "For although all the Goyim are uncircumcised, all the house of Isra'el have uncircumcised hearts."

for here is what Adonai says: "At this time I am slinging away the inhabitants of the land; I will distress them, so that they will feel it."

Therefore Adonai says, "I am going to bring on them a disaster which they will not be able to escape; and even if they cry to me, I will not listen to them.

you are to answer them, "This is what Adonai says: ‘I am going to fill all the inhabitants of this land — including the kings sitting on the throne of David, the cohanim, the prophets and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim — with drunkenness.

You have rejected me," says Adonai . "You are heading backward. So I am stretching out my hand against you; tired of sparing you, I am destroying you.

With a winnowing fork I am scattering them to the wind at the gates of the land; I am bereaving them, destroying my people, because they will not return from their ways.

Their widows increase in number more than the sand of the seas; At midday I am bringing the destroyer on the mothers of young men, causing anguish and terror suddenly to fall upon her.

Toward this people I will make you a fortified wall of bronze — they will fight against you but not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and rescue you," says Adonai .

Therefore I am thrusting you out of this land into a land you have not known, neither you nor your ancestors; and there you will serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.'

"So now, tell the people of Y'hudah and those living in Yerushalayim that this is what Adonai says: ‘I am designing disaster for you, working out my plan against you. Turn, each of you, from his evil ways; improve your conduct and actions.'

and go out into the Ben-Hinnom Valley, by the entry to the Potsherd Gate. There you are to proclaim the words I am about to tell you.

Say: ‘Hear the word of Adonai , kings of Y'hudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim! This is what Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "I am about to bring disaster on this place that will make the ears of whoever hears about it ring.

"This is what Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: ‘I am bringing on this city and all its surrounding villages all the disaster I have pronounced against it; because they have stiffened their necks and refused to pay attention to my words.'"

"And here is what you are to tell this people: ‘ Adonai says: "Look! I am presenting you with the way of life and the way of death.

Adonai says, "I am against you, [Yerushalayim,] situated in a valley like a rock on a plain. You who say, ‘Who can come down against us? Who can enter our lairs?' —