Study Desk

discretion will watch over you, and discernment will guard you.

Hold fast to discipline, don't let it go; guard it, for it is your life.

Above everything else, guard your heart; for it is the source of life's consequences.

Obey my commands, and live; guard my teaching like the pupil of your eye.

"I, Adonai , guard it. Moment to moment I water it. So that no harm will come to it, I guard it night and day.

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.

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."

and had reached the gate leading toward Binyamin when a guard commander there named Yir'iyah the son of Shelemyah, the son of Hananyah, seized Yirmeyahu the prophet, shouting, "You're deserting to the Kasdim!"

N'vuzar'adan commander of the guard then deported to Bavel the remaining population of the city, the deserters who had defected to him, and the rest of the people remaining.

But N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard left behind in the territory of Y'hudah some of the poor people, those who had nothing, and at the same time gave them vineyards and fields.

Concerning Yirmeyahu, N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel gave N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard this order:

So N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard, N'vushazban the Rav-Saris, Nergal-Sar'etzer the Rav-Mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Bavel

This word came to Yirmeyahu from Adonai after N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard had let him leave Ramah, after having taken him, bound in chains, with all the captives from Yerushalayim and Y'hudah that had been carried off to Bavel.

The commander of the guard took Yirmeyahu and said to him, " Adonai your God decreed this disaster for this place,

Before Yirmeyahu could answer, [N'vuzar'adan said,] "Go back then to G'dalyahu the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, whom the king of Bavel has made governor over the cities of Y'hudah, and live with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right for you to go." The commander of the guard gave him provisions and a gift, and dismissed him.

Then Yishma‘el carried off captive the rest of the people in Mitzpah — the king's daughters and all the people left in Mitzpah, whom N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard had committed to the care of G'dalyahu the son of Achikam. Yishma‘el the son of N'tanyahu carried them off captive and left to cross over to the people of ‘Amon.

the men, the women, the children, the king's daughters, everyone N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard had committed to G'dalyahu the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, and Yirmeyahu the prophet and Barukh the son of Neriyah —

Raise a standard against the walls of Bavel! Strengthen the guard! Post the sentries! Prepare ambushes! For Adonai has both planned and accomplished what he promised to do to those living in Bavel.

In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was also the nineteenth year of King N'vukhadretzar, king of Bavel, N'vuzar'adan, the commander of the guard and a close associate of the king of Bavel, entered Yerushalayim.

The whole army of the Kasdim, who were with the commander of the guard, broke down all the walls of Yerushalayim on every side.