Study Desk

See on the mountains the feet of him who comes with good news, giving word of peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah, give effect to your oaths: for the good-for-nothing man will never again go through you; he is completely cut off.

For the Lord will make good the vine of Jacob, as well as the vine of Israel: for the wasters have made them waste and sent destruction on the branches of their vine.

Take silver, take gold; for there is no end to the store; take for yourselves a weight of things to be desired.

Where is the lions' hole, the place where the young lions got their food, where the lion and the she-lion were walking with their young, without cause for fear?

Food enough for his young and for his she-lions was pulled down by the lion; his hole was full of flesh and his resting-place stored with meat.

See, I am against you, says the Lord of armies, and I will have your war-carriages burned in the smoke, and your young lions will be food for the sword: you will no longer get your food by force on the earth, and the voice of your she-lions will be stopped for ever.

And it will come about that all who see you will go in flight from you and say, Nineveh is made waste: who will be weeping for her? where am I to get comforters for her?

And you will be overcome with wine, you will become feeble; you will be looking for a safe place from those who are fighting against you.

All your walled places will be like fig-trees and your people like the first figs, falling at a shake into the mouth which is open for them.

Get water for the time when you are shut in, make strong your towns: go into the potter's earth, stamping it down with your feet, make strong the brickworks.

Your pain may not be made better; you are wounded to death: all those hearing the news about you will be waving their hands in joy over you: for who has not undergone the weight of your evil-doing again and again?

Why do you make me see evil-doing, and why are my eyes fixed on wrong? for wasting and violent acts are before me: and there is fighting and bitter argument.

For this reason the law is feeble and decisions are not effected: for the upright man is circled round by evil-doers; because of which right is twisted.

See among the nations, and take note, and be full of wonder: for in your days I am doing a work in which you will have no belief, even if news of it is given to you.

For see, I am sending the Chaldaeans, that bitter and quick-moving nation; who go through the wide spaces of the earth to get for themselves living-places which are not theirs.

He makes little of kings, rulers are a sport to him; all the strong places are to be laughed at; for he makes earthworks and takes them.

Are you not eternal, O Lord my God, my Holy One? for you there is no death. O Lord, he has been ordered by you for our punishment; and by you, O Rock, he has been marked out to put us right.

He takes them all up with his hook, he takes them in his net, getting them together in his fishing-net: for which cause he is glad and full of joy.

For this reason he makes an offering to his net, burning perfume to his fishing-net; because by them he gets much food and his meat is fat.

For this cause his net is ever open, and there is no end to his destruction of the nations.