Study Desk

Be troubled, you farmers! Cry in a loud voice, you who take care of the vines! Cry for the wheat and the barley, because what was gathered from the field is destroyed.

How the animals cry inside themselves! The cattle go from place to place because there is no food for them. Even the flocks of sheep suffer.

Egypt will be destroyed and Edom will become a desert waste, because of the bad things done to the sons of Judah. They have killed people in the land of Judah who were not guilty of wrong-doing.

"So I will do this to you, O Israel. And because I will do this to you, get ready to meet your God, O Israel."

You crush the poor under foot and make them pay taxes with their grain. Because of this, even though you have built houses of cut stone, you will not live in them and even though you have planted beautiful grape-fields, you will not drink their wine.

And there are cries of sorrow in all the grape-fields, because I will pass among you," says the Lord.

You drink wine from the holy dishes, and pour the best oil on yourselves. Yet you are not filled with sorrow because Joseph has been destroyed!

Will not the land shake because of this? Will not everyone who lives in it be filled with sorrow? All of it will rise up like the Nile. It will be troubled, and will fall like the Nile River of Egypt.

On that day the beautiful, pure, young women and the young men will lose their strength and fall because of thirst.

"Because you have hurt your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and destroyed forever.

Then the men were filled with fear and said to him, "How could you do this?" For the men knew that he was running away from the Lord, because he had told them.

Jonah said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know that this bad storm has come upon you because of me."

saying, "I called out to the Lord because of my trouble, and He answered me. I cried for help from the place of the dead, and You heard my voice.

All this is because Jacob would not obey and because of the sins of the people of Israel. What is Jacob's sin? Is it not Samaria? What is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?

Because of this I must cry out in sorrow. I must go without shoes and clothing. I must cry out like the wild dogs, and cry in sorrow like the ostriches.

Those who live in Maroth become weak waiting for good, because trouble has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.

It is bad for those who make plans to do wrong, who lie on their beds thinking of something sinful to do! When morning comes, they do it, because it is in their power.

"The people say to me, ‘Do not speak about these things, because we will not be put to shame.'

Get up and go away, for this is no place of rest, because it is made unclean. It is destroyed with much suffering.

Then they will cry to the Lord, but He will not answer them. He will hide His face from them at that time, because they have done sinful things.