Study Desk

So God has pronounced a curse on the earth. Its people are paying for what they have done. Fewer and fewer remain alive.

Those of our people who have died will live again! Their bodies will come back to life. All those sleeping in their graves will wake up and sing for joy. As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth, so the Lord will revive those who have long been dead.

"I watch over it and water it continually. I guard it night and day so that no one will harm it.

Even the prophets and the priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them.

So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless."

So now the Lord , the God of Israel, who rescued Abraham from trouble, says, "My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame.

They go to Egypt for help without asking for my advice. They want Egypt to protect them, so they put their trust in Egypt's king.

The help that Egypt gives is useless. So I have nicknamed Egypt, ‘The Harmless Dragon.'"

God told me to write down in a book what the people are like, so that there would be a permanent record of how evil they are.

You will be shattered like a clay pot, so badly broken that there is no piece big enough to pick up hot coals with or to dip water from a cistern."

Just as a bird hovers over its nest to protect its young, so I, the Lord Almighty, will protect Jerusalem and defend it."

Their emperor will run away in terror, and the officers will be so frightened that they will abandon their battle flags." The Lord has spoken—the Lord who is worshiped in Jerusalem and whose fire burns there for sacrifices.

The highways are so dangerous that no one travels on them. Treaties are broken and agreements are violated. No one is respected any more.

All the rigging on those ships is useless; the sails cannot be spread! We will seize all the wealth of enemy armies, and there will be so much that even the lame can get a share. The Lord himself will be our king; he will rule over us and protect us.

Search in the Lord 's book of living creatures and read what it says. Not one of these creatures will be missing, and not one will be without its mate. The Lord has commanded it to be so; he himself will bring them together.

The Assyrian official told them that the emperor wanted to know what made King Hezekiah so confident.

The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the Lord your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive."

The Assyrian official learned that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him.

Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that you alone are God."

About that same time the king of Babylonia, Merodach Baladan, son of Baladan, heard that King Hezekiah had been sick, so he sent him a letter and a present.