Study Desk

"They have made it a wasteland, Desolate, it mourns before Me; The whole land has been made a wasteland, Because no man takes it to heart.

"They have planted wheat but have reaped thorns; They have exhausted themselves but without profit. So be ashamed of your harvest Because of the fierce and raging anger of the LORD."

But if you will not listen and obey, My soul will weep in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly And flow with tears, Because the LORD'S flock has been taken captive.

"And if you [wonder and] say in your heart, 'Why have these things happened to me?' It is because of the greatness and nature of your sin That your skirts have been pulled away [subjecting you to public disgrace] And [like a barefoot slave] your heels have been wounded.

"This is your destiny, the portion [of judgment] measured to you From Me," says the LORD, "Because you have forgotten Me And trusted in [pagan] lies [the counterfeit gods, and the pretense of alliance]."

"The ground is cracked Because there has been no rain on the land; The farmers are distressed, And they have covered their heads [in shame].

"The doe in the field has given birth only to abandon her young Because there is no grass.

"And the wild donkeys stand on the barren heights; They pant for air like jackals, Their eyesight fails Because there is no grass.

"Though they fast, I will not hear their cry; and though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them [because they are done as obligations, and not as acts of loving obedience]. Instead I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence."

"I will make them an object of horror to all nations of the earth because of Manasseh [the despicable] son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for the [evil and detestable] things which he did in Jerusalem.

"Your [nation's] riches and your treasures I will give as plunder without price [to the Babylonians], Because of all your sins And within all your territories.

I did not sit with the group of those who celebrate, Nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because Your [powerful] hand was upon me, For You had filled me with indignation [at their sin].

"Then you are to say to them, 'It is because your fathers have abandoned (rejected) Me,' says the LORD, 'and have walked after other gods and have served them and bowed down to the handmade idols and have abandoned (rejected) Me and have not kept My law,

and because you have done worse [things] than your fathers. Just look, every one of you walks in the stubbornness of his own evil heart, so that you do not listen [obediently] to Me.

"I will first doubly repay and punish them for their wickedness and their sin [before I return them to their land], because they have profaned My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations."

O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who abandon You will be shamed. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, Because they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

"Because the people [of Jerusalem] have abandoned (rejected) Me and have made this an alien and profaned place by burning sacrifices and incense in it to other gods, that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent

"I will make this city a desolation and an object of hissing; everyone who passes by it will be amazed and will hiss [in scorn] because of all its plagues and disasters.

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am going to bring on this city and on all its towns, all the devastation that I have declared against it, because they have become stiff-necked and refused to hear and obey My words.'"

For whenever I speak, I must shout out; I shout violence and destruction, Because the word of the LORD has become to me A reprimand and a mockery and has brought me insult all day long.