Study Desk

As a man whose mother comforts him, so I myself will comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

"For just as the new heavens and earth that I am about to make shall stand before me," declares Yahweh, "so shall your descendants and your name stand.

As the shame of a thief when he is caught in the act, so the house of Israel will be ashamed. They, their kings, their officials, and their priests, and their prophets.

How you go about so much changing your way! Also by Egypt you will be put to shame, just as you were put to shame by Assyria.

However, as a wife departs treacherously from her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel," declares Yahweh.

Cleanse your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will your thoughts of mischief dwell in your inner part?

"Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem, and look please, and take note, and search at its public squares, if you can find a person who does justice, who seeks honesty, so that I may forgive it.

And then, when you people say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all of these things to us?' Then you will say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and have served gods of a foreign land in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that does not belong to you.'

Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of fraud. Therefore they have become great, and they have become rich.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it so much. But what will you do when the end comes?

As a water well keeps its water cool, so she keeps cool her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard within her, sickness and wounds are continually before me.

"I have made you an assayer among my people, a fortification, so that you may know and put to the test their ways.

But I only commanded them this word, saying, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be to you God, and you will be to me people, and you must walk in all of the way that I command you, so that it goes well with you.'

So you shall speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you, and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night, for the slain of the daughter of my people.

For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the desert a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through. And the sounds of cattle are not heard, from the birds of heaven to the animals they have fled, they are gone.

Who is the wise man that can understand this? And to whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed? It is laid waste like the desert so that no one passes through."

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Consider closely, and call for the wailing women, so that they come, and for the skillful women, so that they come.

And let them hasten, and let them lift up wailing over us, so that our eyes may melt with tears, and our eyelids may flow with water.

He decorates it with silver and gold, they strengthen it with nails and hammers, so that it does not stagger.