Study Desk

Why do you boast of your valleys, boast of your valleys so fruitful? O unfaithful daughter, you trust in your riches and say, 'Who will attack me?'

But I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his hiding places, so that he cannot conceal himself. His children, relatives and neighbors will perish, and he will be no more.

As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown, along with their neighboring towns," says the LORD , "so no one will live there; no man will dwell in it.

So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill," declares the LORD .

Yet their Redeemer is strong; the LORD Almighty is his name. He will vigorously defend their cause so that he may bring rest to their land, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

"So desert creatures and hyenas will live there, and there the owl will dwell. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.

As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighboring towns," declares the LORD , "so no one will live there; no man will dwell in it.

The land trembles and writhes, for the LORD's purposes against Babylon stand- to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no one will live there.

But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter- then sleep forever and not awake," declares the LORD .

Then say, 'O LORD , you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither man nor animal will live in it; it will be desolate forever.'

Then say, 'So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will fall.' " The words of Jeremiah end here.

So in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They camped outside the city and built siege works all around it.

By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.

There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.

So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king's table.

How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave.

Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns away.

"People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my distress; they rejoice at what you have done. May you bring the day you have announced so they may become like me.

"As you summon to a feast day, so you summoned against me terrors on every side. In the day of the LORD's anger no one escaped or survived; those I cared for and reared, my enemy has destroyed."

He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.