Study Desk

But you will be called the Lord’s priests;they will speak of you as ministers of our God;you will eat the wealth of the nations,and you will boast in their riches.

I rejoice greatly in the Lord,I exult in my God;for he has clothed me with the garments of salvationand wrapped me in a robe of righteousness,as a groom wears a turbanand as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth produces its growth,and as a garden enables what is sown to spring up,so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praiseto spring up before all the nations.

For as a young man marries a young woman,so your sons will marry you;and as a groom rejoices over his bride,so your God will rejoice over you.

From ancient times no one has heard,no one has listened to,no eye has seen any God except youwho acts on behalf of the one who waits for him.

Therefore, this is what the Lord God says:

You will leave your name behindas a curse for my chosen ones,and the Lord God will kill you;but he will give his servants another name.

Whoever asks for a blessing in the landwill ask for a blessing by the God of truth,and whoever swears in the landwill swear by the God of truth.For the former troubles will be forgottenand hidden from my sight.

“Will I bring a baby to the point of birthand not deliver it?”says the Lord;“or will I who deliver, close the womb?”says your God.

But I protested, “Oh no, Lord God! Look, I don’t know how to speak since I am only a youth.”

A sound is heard on the barren heights:the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy,for they have perverted their way;they have forgotten the Lord their God.

Return, you faithless children.I will heal your unfaithfulness.“Here we are, coming to you,for you are the Lord our God.

Surely, falsehood comes from the hills,commotion from the mountains,but the salvation of Israelis only in the Lord our God.

Let us lie down in our shame;let our disgrace cover us.We have sinned against the Lord our God,both we and our fathers,from the time of our youth even to this day.We have not obeyed the Lord our God.”

I said, “Oh no, Lord God, you have certainly deceived this people and Jerusalem, by announcing, ‘You will have peace,’ while a sword is at our throats.”

Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Armies says:

When people ask, ‘For what offense has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ You will respond to them, ‘Just as you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

They have not said to themselves,‘Let’s fear the Lord our God,who gives the seasonal rains, both autumn and spring,who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’

“‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions, and I will allow you to live in this place.

Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, my anger—my burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place, on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”