Study Desk

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep;wail, all you wine drinkers,because of the sweet wine,for it has been taken from your mouth.

Be ashamed, you farmers,wail, you vinedressers,over the wheat and the barley,because the harvest of the field has perished.

Dress in sackcloth and lament, you priests;wail, you ministers of the altar.Come and spend the night in sackcloth,you ministers of my God,because grain and drink offeringsare withheld from the house of your God.

Woe because of that day!For the day of the Lord is nearand will come as devastation from the Almighty.

The seeds lie shriveled in their casings.The storehouses are in ruin,and the granaries are broken down,because the grain has withered away.

Children of Zion, rejoice and be gladin the Lord your God,because he gives you the autumn rainfor your vindication.He sends showers for you,both autumn and spring rain as before.

Egypt will become desolate,and Edom a desert wasteland,because of the violence done to the people of Judahin whose land they shed innocent blood.

Therefore, because you trample on the poorand exact a grain tax from him,you will never live in the houses of cut stoneyou have built;you will never drink the winefrom the lush vineyardsyou have planted.

Because of this, won’t the land quakeand all who dwell in it mourn?All of it will rise like the Nile;it will surge and then subsidelike the Nile in Egypt.

“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.”

Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, “What is this you’ve done?” The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord’s presence because he had told them.

Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn’t because the sea was raging against them more and more.

So they called out to the Lord: “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.”

All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellionand the sins of the house of Israel.What is the rebellion of Jacob?Isn’t it Samaria?And what is the high place of Judah?Isn’t it Jerusalem?

Because of this I will lament and wail;I will walk barefoot and naked.I will howl like the jackalsand mourn like ostriches.

Therefore, because of you,Zion will be plowed like a field,Jerusalem will become ruins,and the temple’s mountainwill be a high thicket.

Listen to the Lord’s lawsuit,you mountains and enduring foundations of the earth,because the Lord has a case against his people,and he will argue it against Israel.

“As a result, I have begun to strike you severely,bringing desolation because of your sins.

Because I have sinned against him,I must endure the Lord’s rageuntil he champions my causeand establishes justice for me.He will bring me into the light;I will see his salvation.

Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute,the attractive mistress of sorcery,who treats nations and clans like merchandiseby her prostitution and sorcery,