Study Desk

I thought long and hard about all this and saw that God controls the actions of wise and righteous people, even their love and their hate. No one knows anything about what lies ahead.

Go ahead—eat your food and be happy; drink your wine and be cheerful. It's all right with God.

Enjoy life with the one you love, as long as you live the useless life that God has given you in this world. Enjoy every useless day of it, because that is all you will get for all your trouble.

God made everything, and you can no more understand what he does than you understand how new life begins in the womb of a pregnant woman.

Young people, enjoy your youth. Be happy while you are still young. Do what you want to do, and follow your heart's desire. But remember that God is going to judge you for whatever you do.

Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.

The sayings of the wise are like the sharp sticks that shepherds use to guide sheep, and collected proverbs are as lasting as firmly driven nails. They have been given by God, the one Shepherd of us all.

After all this, there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for.

God is going to judge everything we do, whether good or bad, even things done in secret.

This book contains the messages about Judah and Jerusalem which God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz during the time when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah.

You are doomed, you sinful nation, you corrupt and evil people! Your sins drag you down! You have rejected the Lord , the holy God of Israel, and have turned your backs on him.

Jerusalem, your rulers and your people are like those of Sodom and Gomorrah. Listen to what the Lord is saying to you. Pay attention to what our God is teaching you.

So now, listen to what the Lord Almighty, Israel's powerful God, is saying: "I will take revenge on you, my enemies, and you will cause me no more trouble.

Here is the message which God gave to Isaiah son of Amoz about Judah and Jerusalem:

and their people will say, "Let us go up the hill of the Lord , to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen. For the Lord 's teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people."

O God, you have forsaken your people, the descendants of Jacob! The land is full of magic practices from the East and from Philistia. The people follow foreign customs.

Yes, Jerusalem is doomed! Judah is collapsing! Everything they say and do is against the Lord ; they openly insult God himself.

Everyone who is left in Jerusalem, whom God has chosen for survival, will be called holy.

You say, "Let the Lord hurry up and do what he says he will, so that we can see it. Let Israel's holy God carry out his plans; let's see what he has in mind."

So now, just as straw and dry grass shrivel and burn in the fire, your roots will rot and your blossoms will dry up and blow away, because you have rejected what the Lord Almighty, Israel's holy God, has taught us.