Study Desk

"And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.

"Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception," declares the LORD.

"But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

"For My people are foolish, They know Me not; They are stupid children And have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, But to do good they do not know."

O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You have smitten them, But they did not weaken; You have consumed them, But they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; They have refused to repent.

"I will go to the great And will speak to them, For they know the way of the LORD And the ordinance of their God." But they too, with one accord, have broken the yoke And burst the bonds.

"Go up through her vine rows and destroy, But do not execute a complete destruction; Strip away her branches, For they are not the LORD'S.

'Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, Who have eyes but do not see; Who have ears but do not hear.

'But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; They have turned aside and departed.

The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?

But I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary with holding it in. "Pour it out on the children in the street And on the gathering of young men together; For both husband and wife shall be taken, The aged and the very old.

"They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' But there is no peace.

Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'

"And I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not listen.'

The bellows blow fiercely, The lead is consumed by the fire; In vain the refining goes on, But the wicked are not separated.

"But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

"And now, because you have done all these things," declares the LORD, "and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer,

"But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.'

"Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

"Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.