Study Desk

You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,And the storm will scatter them;But you will rejoice in Yahweh;You will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

"The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none,And their tongue is parched with thirst;I, Yahweh, will answer them Myself,As the God of Israel I will not forsake them.

But I look, and there is no one,And there is no counselor among themWho, if I ask, can respond with a word.

Who is blind but My servant,Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send?Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me,Or so blind as the servant of Yahweh?

You have seen many things, but you do not keep them;Your ears are open, but none hears.

But this is a people plundered and pillaged as spoil;All of them are trapped in caves,Or are hidden away in prisons;They have become a plunder with none to deliver them,And a spoil, with none to say, "Have them return!"

So He poured out on him the heat of His angerAnd the fierceness of battle;And it set him aflame all around,Yet he did not know it;And it burned him, but he did not set it upon his heart.

But now, thus says Yahweh, your Creator, O Jacob,And He who formed you, O Israel,"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;I have called you by name; you are Mine!

"Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob;But you have become weary of Me, O Israel.

"But now hear, O Jacob, My servant,And Israel, whom I have chosen:

But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god."

For thus says Yahweh, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it; He established it and did not create it a formless place, but formed it to be inhabited),"I am Yahweh, and there is none else.

They stooped over, they have bowed down together;They could not rescue the load,But have themselves gone into captivity.

But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day:Loss of children and widowhood.They will come on you in full measureIn spite of your many sorceries,In spite of the great might of your spells.

But evil will come on youWhich you will not know how to charm away;And disaster will fall on youFor which you cannot atone;And destruction about which you do not knowWill come on you suddenly.

"Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name IsraelAnd who came forth from the loins of Judah,Who swear by the name of YahwehAnd bring to remembrance the God of Israel,But not in truth or in righteousness.

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

But I said, "I have toiled in vain;I have spent My might for nothing and vanity;Yet surely the justice due to Me is with Yahweh,And My reward with My God."

But Zion said, "Yahweh has forsaken me,And the Lord has forgotten me."

"Can a woman forget her infantAnd have no compassion on the son of her womb?Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.