Study Desk

Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably?They weren’t at all ashamed.They can no longer feel humiliation.Therefore, they will fall among the fallen.When I punish them, they will collapse,says the Lord.

I have appointed you to be an assayer among my people—a refiner—so you may know and assay their way of life.

Then do you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, “We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts”?

The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke me to anger.

However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’

The wise will be put to shame;they will be dismayed and snared.They have rejected the word of the Lord,so what wisdom do they really have?

Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably?They weren’t at all ashamed.They can no longer feel humiliation.Therefore, they will fall among the fallen.When I punish them, they will collapse,”says the Lord.

Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no physician there?So why has the healing of my dear peoplenot come about?

I will raise weeping and a lamentover the mountains,a dirge over the wilderness grazing land,for they have been so scorchedthat no one passes through.The sound of cattle is no longer heard.From the birds of the sky to the animals,everything has fled—they have gone away.

Who is the person wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?

He decorates it with silver and gold.It is fastened with hammer and nails,so it won’t totter.

Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do.”

What right does my beloved haveto be in my house,having carried out so many evil schemes?Can holy meat prevent your disasterso you can celebrate?

The Lord informed me, so I knew.Then you helped me to see their deeds,

So I bought underwear as the Lord instructed me and put it on.

So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.

So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the underwear and got it from the place where I had hidden it, but it was ruined—of no use at all.

Just as underwear clings to one’s waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and of Judah to me”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“so that they might be my people for my fame, praise, and glory, but they would not obey.

Can the Cushite change his skin,or a leopard his spots?If so, you might be able to do what is good,you who are instructed in evil.

So I will hurl you from this land into a land that you and your fathers are not familiar with. There you will worship other gods both day and night, for I will not grant you grace.’