Study Desk

The Lord answered, "This has happened because my people have abandoned the teaching that I gave them. They have not obeyed me or done what I told them.

If any want to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me, because my love is constant, and I do what is just and right. These are the things that please me. I, the Lord , have spoken."

Such idols are like scarecrows in a field of melons; they cannot speak; they have to be carried because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them: they can cause you no harm, and they can do you no good."

At the sight of this, people feel stupid and senseless; those who make idols are disillusioned, because the gods they make are false and lifeless.

"I, the Lord Almighty, planted Israel and Judah; but now I threaten them with disaster. They have brought this on themselves because they have done wrong; they have made me angry by offering sacrifices to Baal."

How long will our land be dry, and the grass in every field be withered? Animals and birds are dying because of the wickedness of our people, people who say, ‘God doesn't see what we are doing.'"

My people planted wheat, but gathered weeds; they have worked hard, but got nothing for it. Because of my fierce anger their crops have failed."

If you will not listen, I will cry in secret because of your pride; I will cry bitterly, and my tears will flow because the Lord 's people have been taken away as captives.

The Lord said to me, "Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads.

If you ask why all this has happened to you—why your clothes have been torn off and you have been raped—it is because your sin is so terrible.

He has said that this will be your fate. This is what he has decided to do with you, because you have forgotten him and have trusted in false gods.

Because there is no rain and the ground is dried up, the farmers are sick at heart; they hide their faces.

In the field the mother deer abandons her newborn fawn because there is no grass.

The wild donkeys stand on the hilltops and pant for breath like jackals; their eyesight fails them because they have no food.

The Lord says about these people, "They love to run away from me, and they will not control themselves. So I am not pleased with them. I will remember the wrongs they have done and punish them because of their sins."

Then I said, "Sovereign Lord , you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land."

None of the idols of the nations can send rain; the sky by itself cannot make showers fall. We have put our hope in you, O Lord our God, because you are the one who does these things.

I will make all the people of the world horrified at them because of what Hezekiah's son Manasseh did in Jerusalem when he was king of Judah."

You people have rejected me; you have turned your backs on me. So I reached out and crushed you because I was tired of controlling my anger.

In every town in the land I threw you to the wind like straw. I destroyed you, my people, I killed your children because you did not stop your evil ways.