Study Desk

But you planted evil, and you harvested trouble. You ate the fruit of your lies, because you had trusted in your power and your soldiers.

And this will happen to you at Bethel, because you did so many evil things. When that day begins, the king of Israel will be fully destroyed.

"The Israelites will not go back to Egypt. The king of Assyria will become their king, because they refused to turn back to God.

Samaria must be punished because she turned against her God. The Israelites will be killed with swords. Their children will be torn to pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open."

Assyria will not save us. We will not ride on war horses. We will never again say, ‘Our God' to something we made with our hands. This is because you are the one who shows mercy to orphans."

The Lord says, "I will forgive them for leaving me. I will show them my love without limits, because I have stopped being angry.

Drunks, wake up and cry! All of you who drink wine, cry because your sweet wine is finished. You will not taste it again.

Cry like a young woman crying because the man she was ready to marry has died.

Priests, servants of the Lord , cry because there will be no more grain and drink offerings in the Lord 's Temple.

The fields are ruined. Even the ground is crying because the grain is destroyed; the new wine is dried up, and the olive oil is gone.

Be sad, farmers! Cry loudly for the grapes, for the wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest in the field is ruined.

Priests, put on sackcloth and cry loudly. Servants of the altar, cry loudly. Servants of my God, you will sleep in sackcloth, because there will be no more grain and drink offerings in God's Temple.

Be sad because the Lord 's special day is near. At that time punishment will come like an attack from God All-Powerful.

The animals are hungry and groaning. The herds of cattle wander around confused because they have no grass to eat. The sheep are dying.

Bring the sickle, because the harvest is ripe. Come, walk on the grapes, because the winepress is full. The barrels will be full and spilling over, because their evil is great.

Egypt will be empty. Edom will be an empty wilderness, because they were cruel to the people of Judah. They killed innocent people in their country.

Go to the high towers in Ashdod and in Egypt and announce this message from the Lord : "Come together on the mountains of Samaria. See the great confusion there because the people don't know how to live right. See how cruel they are to others. They take things from people to hide in their high towers. Their treasuries are filled with the things they have taken in war."

This is because I know about your many sins. You have done some very bad things: You hurt people who do right, you accept money to do wrong, and you keep the poor from receiving justice in court.

At that time wise teachers will be quiet, because it is a bad time.

People will be crying in the vineyards, because I will pass through and punish you." This is what the Lord said.