Study Desk

And after working the earth of it with a spade, he took away its stones, and put in it a very special vine; and he put up a watchtower in the middle of it, hollowing out in the rock a place for the grape-crushing; and he was hoping that it would give the best grapes, but it gave common grapes.

And I will make it waste; its branches will not be touched with the knife, or the earth worked with the spade; but blackberries and thorns will come up in it: and I will give orders to the clouds not to send rain on it.

Cursed are those who are joining house to house, and putting field to field, till there is no more living-space for any but themselves in all the land!

And corded instruments and wind-instruments and wine are in their feasts: but they give no thought to the work of the Lord, and they are not interested in what his hands are doing.

But the Lord of armies is lifted up as judge, and the Holy God is seen to be holy in righteousness.

And he said, Go, and say to this people, You will go on hearing, but learning nothing; you will go on seeing, but without getting wiser.

Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but were not able to overcome it.

But Ahaz said, I will not put the Lord to the test by making such a request.

And it will be in that day that in every place where before there were a thousand vines valued at a thousand shekels of silver, there will be nothing but blackberries and thorns.

But let the Lord of armies be holy to you, and go in fear of him, giving honour to him.

And he will be for a holy place: but for a stone of falling and a rock of trouble to the two houses of Israel, and to the men of Jerusalem, for a net in which they may be taken.

In earlier times he made the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali of small value, but after that he gave it glory, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

The bricks have come down, but we will put up buildings of cut stone in their place: the sycamores are cut down, but they will be changed to cedars.

Aram on the east, and the Philistines on the west, who have come against Israel with open mouths. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

But the heart of the people was not turned to him who sent punishment on them, and they made no prayer to the Lord of armies.

For this cause the Lord will have no pleasure in their young men, and no pity on their widows and the children without fathers: for they are all haters of God and evil-doers, and foolish words come from every mouth. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

On the right a man was cutting off bits and was still in need; on the left a man took a meal but had not enough; no man had pity on his brother; every man was making a meal of the flesh of his neighbour.

Manasseh was making a meal of Ephraim, and Ephraim of Manasseh; and together they were attacking Judah. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Three dots are used where it is no longer possible to be certain of the true sense of the Hebrew words, and for this reason no attempt has been made to put them into Basic English. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

But this is not what is in his mind, and this is not his design; but his purpose is destruction, and the cutting off of more and more nations.