Study Desk

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vineIn the innermost parts of your house,Your children like olive plantsAll around your table.

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children,And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.

In the fear of Yahweh there is strong security,And his children will have refuge.

Her children rise up and bless her;As for her husband, he also praises her, saying:

If a man becomes the father of one hundred children and lives many years, however many the days of his years may be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things, and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, "Better the miscarriage than he,

For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,Because they are filled with influences from the east,And they are soothsayers like the Philistines,And they strike bargains with the children of foreigners.

And I will make young men their princes,And capricious children will rule over them,

Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

And their bows will dash the young men to pieces,They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,Nor will their eye pity children.

But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst,They will sanctify My name;Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of JacobAnd will stand trembling before the God of Israel.

"Woe to the rebellious children," declares Yahweh,"Who execute counsel, but not Mine,And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,In order to add sin to sin,

And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, reproof, and rejection; for children have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth.

"So now, hear this, you sensual one,Who sits securely,Who says in your heart,‘I am, and there is no one besides me.I will not sit as a widow,Nor know loss of children.'

But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day:Loss of children and widowhood.They will come on you in full measureIn spite of your many sorceries,In spite of the great might of your spells.

The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears,‘The place is too cramped for me;Make room for me that I may live here.'

Against whom do you jest?Against whom do you open wide your mouthAnd stick out your tongue?Are you not children of transgression,Seed of lying,

Who inflame yourselves among the oaks,Under every green tree,Who slaughter the children in the ravines,Under the clefts of the cliffs?

They will not labor in vain,Or bear children for terror;For they are the seed of those blessed by Yahweh,And their offspring with them.

The children gather wood, and the fathers make the fire burn, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke Me.

And I will winnow them with a winnowing forkAt the gates of the land;I will bereave them of children; I will make My people perish;They did not repent of their ways.