Study Desk

This is what God, the Lord, says—who created the heavens and stretched them out,who spread out the earth and what comes from it,who gives breath to the people on itand spirit to those who walk on it—

Rejoice, heavens, for the Lord has acted;shout, depths of the earth.Break out into singing, mountains,forest, and every tree in it.For the Lord has redeemed Jacob,and glorifies himself through Israel.

“Heavens, sprinkle from above,and let the skies shower righteousness.Let the earth open upso that salvation will sproutand righteousness will spring up with it.I, the Lord, have created it.

I made the earth,and created humans on it.It was my hands that stretched out the heavens,and I commanded everything in them.

For this is what the Lord says—the Creator of the heavens,the God who formed the earth and made it,the one who established it(he did not create it to be a wasteland,but formed it to be inhabited)—he says, “I am the Lord,and there is no other.

My own hand founded the earth,and my right hand spread out the heavens;when I summoned them,they stood up together.

Shout for joy, you heavens!Earth, rejoice!Mountains break into joyful shouts!For the Lord has comforted his people,and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

I dress the heavens in blackand make sackcloth their clothing.

Look up to the heavens,and look at the earth beneath;for the heavens will vanish like smoke,the earth will wear out like a garment,and its inhabitants will die like gnats.But my salvation will last forever,and my righteousness will never be shattered.

I have put my words in your mouth,and covered you in the shadow of my hand,in order to plant the heavens,to found the earth,and to say to Zion, “You are my people.”

If only you would tear the heavens open

“For just as the new heavens and the new earth,which I will make,will remain before me”—

Be appalled at this, heavens;be shocked and utterly desolated!

I looked at the earth,and it was formless and empty.I looked to the heavens,and their light was gone.

You are to say this to them: “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”

He made the earth by his power,established the world by his wisdom,and spread out the heavens by his understanding.

When he thunders,the waters in the heavens are in turmoil,and he causes the clouds to risefrom the ends of the earth.He makes lightning for the rainand brings the wind from his storehouses.

Can a person hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” —the Lord’s declaration. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” —the Lord’s declaration.

Oh, Lord God! You yourself made the heavens and earth by your great power and with your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you!

I will bring the four winds against Elamfrom the four corners of the heavens,and I will scatter them to all these winds.There will not be a nationto which Elam’s banished ones will not go.