Study Desk

Damascus was also your trading partner because of your numerous products and your abundant wealth of every kind, trading in wine from Helbon and white wool.

Because of you, they raise their voicesand cry out bitterly.They throw dust on their heads;they roll in ashes.

They shave their heads because of youand wrap themselves in sackcloth.They weep over youwith deep anguish and bitter mourning.

By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has become proud because of your wealth.

Your heart became proud because of your beauty;For the sake of your splendoryou corrupted your wisdom.So I threw you down to the ground;I made you a spectacle before kings.

The land of Egypt will be a desolate ruin. Then they will know that I am the Lord. Because you said, “The Nile is my own; I made it,”

I determined to hand it over to a ruler of nations; he would surely deal with it. I banished it because of its wickedness.

“‘This is what the Lord God says: I caused grieving on the day the cedar went down to Sheol. I closed off the underground deep because of it: I held back the rivers of the deep, and its abundant water was restrained. I made Lebanon mourn on account of it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.

I will cause many peoples to be appalled at you,and their kings will shudder with fear because of youwhen I brandish my sword in front of them.On the day of your downfalleach of them will trembleevery moment for his life.

However, suppose the watchman sees the sword coming but doesn’t blow the trumpet, so that the people aren’t warned, and the sword comes and takes away their lives. Then they have been taken away because of their iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’

“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘You have said this: “Our transgressions and our sins are heavy on us, and we are wasting away because of them! How then can we survive?”’

When I tell the righteous person that he will surely live, but he trusts in his righteousness and acts unjustly, then none of his righteousness will be remembered, and he will die because of the injustice he has committed.

But if a wicked person turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live because of it.

They will know that I am the Lord when I make the land a desolate waste because of all the detestable acts they have committed.’

As I live—this is the declaration of the Lord God—because my flock, lacking a shepherd, has become prey and food for every wild animal, and because my shepherds do not search for my flock, and because the shepherds feed themselves rather than my flock,

“‘Because you maintained a perpetual hatred and gave the Israelites over to the power of the sword in the time of their disaster, the time of final punishment,

“‘Because you said, “These two nations and two lands will be mine, and we will possess them”—though the Lord was there—

Just as you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it became a desolation, I will deal the same way with you: you will become a desolation, Mount Seir, and so will all Edom in its entirety. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

This is what the Lord God says: Because the enemy has said about you, “Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,”’

therefore, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Lord God says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you from every side, so that you became a possession for the rest of the nations and an object of people’s gossip and slander,