Study Desk

O Israel, return [in repentance] to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled and fallen [visited by tragedy], because of your sin.

Awake [from your intoxication], you drunkards, and weep; Wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the [fresh] sweet wine That is cut off from your mouth.

Be ashamed, O farmers; Wail, O vinedressers, For the wheat and for the barley, Because the harvest of the field has perished.

The seeds [of grain] shrivel under the clods, The storehouses are desolate and empty, The barns are in ruins Because the grain is dried up.

How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered and wander aimlessly Because they have no pasture; Even the flocks of sheep suffer.

The LORD utters His voice before His army, For His camp is very great, Because strong and powerful is he who [obediently] carries out His word. For the day of the LORD is indeed great and very terrible [causing dread]; Who can endure it?

I will gather together all the [Gentile] nations [that were hostile to My people] And bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat (the LORD has judged). And there I will deal with them and enter into judgment with them there For [their treatment of] My people, My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations, And [because] they have encroached on My land and divided it up.

"Because you have taken My silver and My gold and have carried My precious treasures to your temples and palaces,

Egypt will become a waste, And Edom will become a desolate wilderness, Because of their violence against the children of Judah, In whose land they have shed innocent blood.

And he said, "The LORD thunders and roars from Zion [in judgment] And utters His voice from Jerusalem; Then the pastures of the shepherds mourn, And the summit of [Mount] Carmel dries up [because of God's judgment]."

Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Damascus and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I shall not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because they have threshed Gilead [east of the Jordan River] with sharp iron sledges [having spikes that crushed and shredded].

Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Gaza [in Philistia] and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because [as slave traders] they took captive the entire [Jewish] population [of defenseless Judean border villages, of which none was spared] And deported them to Edom [for the slave trade].

Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Tyre and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because they [as middlemen] deported an entire [Jewish] population to Edom And did not [seriously] remember their covenant of brotherhood.

Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Edom [the descendants of Esau] and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because he pursued his brother Jacob (Israel) with the sword, Corrupting and stifling his compassions and casting off all mercy; His destructive anger raged continually, And he maintained [and nurtured] his wrath forever.

Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of the children of Ammon and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because the Ammonites have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, That they might enlarge their border.

Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Moab and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom [Esau's descendant] into lime [and used it to plaster a Moabite house].

Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Judah and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because they have rejected the law of the LORD [the sum of God's instruction to His people] And have not kept His commandments; But their lies [and their idols], after which their fathers walked, Caused them to go astray.

Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Israel and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because they sell the righteous and innocent for silver And the needy for the price of a pair of sandals.

"I also gave you cleanness of teeth [because of the famine] in all your cities And lack of bread in all your places, Yet you have not returned to Me [in repentance]," says the LORD.

"Therefore this is what I shall do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God [in judgment], O Israel!"