Study Desk

Open your doors, Lebanon, So that a ^(C1)fire may feed on your ^(C2)cedars.

Wail, juniper, because the cedar has fallen, For the magnificent trees have been destroyed; Wail, oaks of Bashan, Because the ^(F1)impenetrable forest has come down.

There is a sound of the shepherds' ^(C1)wail, For their splendor is ruined; There is a ^(C2)sound of the young lions' roar, For the ^(F1)pride of the Jordan is ruined.

This is what the LORD my God says: "Pasture the flock doomed to ^(C1)slaughter.

"Those who buy them slaughter them and ^(F1)go ^(C1)unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, 'Blessed be the LORD, for ^(C2)I have become rich!' And their ^(C3)own shepherds have no compassion for them.

"For I will ^(C1)no longer have compassion for the inhabitants of the land," declares the LORD; "but behold, I will ^(C2)let the people fall, each into another's ^(F1)power and into the ^(F1)power of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will ^(C3)not rescue them from their ^(F1)power."

So I ^(C1)pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, ^(F1)therefore also the ^(C2)afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two ^(C3)staffs: the one I called ^(F2)(C4)Favor, and the other I called ^(C5)Union; so I pastured the flock.

Then I did away with the three shepherds in ^(C1)one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also ^(F1)was tired of me.

Then I said, "I will not pasture you. What is to ^(C1)die, ^(F1)let it die, and what is to perish, ^(F2)let it perish; and ^(F3)let those who are left eat one another's flesh."

And I took my staff ^(F1)(C1)Favor and cut it in pieces, to ^(F2)(C2)break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

So it was ^(F1)broken on that day, and ^(F2)so the ^(C1)afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD.

And I said to them, "If it is good in your sight, give me my ^(C1)wages; but if not, ^(F1)never mind!" So they weighed out ^(C2)thirty shekels of silver as my wages.

Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the ^(C1)potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them." So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

Then I cut in pieces my second staff ^(C1)Union, to ^(C2)break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

And the LORD said to me, "Take again for yourself the equipment of a ^(C1)foolish shepherd.

"For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will ^(C1)not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or provide for the one who is exhausted, but will ^(C2)devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

-"^(C1)Woe to the worthless shepherd Who abandons the flock! A ^(C2)sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His ^(C3)arm will be totally withered, And his right eye will be ^(F1)blind."

The pronouncement of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: The LORD who ^(C1)stretches out the heavens, ^(C2)lays the foundation of the earth, and ^(C3)forms the spirit of a person within him, declares:

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"Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a ^(C1)cup ^(F1)that causes staggering to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against ^(C2)Judah.

"It will come about on that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy ^(C1)stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will ^(C2)injure themselves severely. And all the ^(C3)nations of the earth will be gathered against it.

"On that day," declares the LORD, "I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with insanity. But I will ^(F1)watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.

"Then the ^(F1)clans of Judah will say in their hearts, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a ^(F2)strong support for us through the LORD of armies, their God.'

"On that day I will make the ^(F1)clans of Judah like a ^(C1)firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while ^(F2)the ^(C2)inhabitants of Jerusalem again live on their own sites in Jerusalem.

"The LORD also will ^(C1)save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of ^(C2)David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be greater than Judah.

"On that day the LORD will ^(C1)protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who ^(F1)(C2)is feeble among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like ^(C3)God, like the ^(C4)angel of the LORD before them.

"And on that day I will ^(C1)seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

"And I will ^(C1)pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem ^(F1)the Spirit of grace and of pleading, so that they will look at Me whom they ^(C2)pierced; and they will mourn for Him, like one ^(C3)mourning for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

"On that day the ^(C1)mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the ^(F1)plain of ^(F2)Megiddo.

"The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves;

the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves;

all the families that are left, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.

"On that day a ^(C1)fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for ^(C2)sin and for ^(C3)defilement.

"And it will come about on that day," declares the LORD of armies, "that I will ^(C1)eliminate the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will also remove the ^(C2)prophets and the ^(C3)unclean spirit from the land.

"And if anyone still ^(C1)prophesies, then his father and mother who gave birth to him will say to him, 'You shall ^(C2)not live, because you have spoken ^(C3)falsely in the name of the LORD'; and his ^(C4)father and mother who gave birth to him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.

"Also it will come about on that day that the prophets will each be ^(C1)ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a ^(C2)hairy robe in order to deceive;

but he will say, 'I am ^(C1)not a prophet; I am a cultivator of the ground, because a man ^(F1)sold me as a slave in my youth.'

"And someone will say to him, 'What are these wounds ^(C1)between your ^(F1)arms?' Then he will say, 'Those with which I was wounded at the house of ^(F2)my friends.'

"Awake, ^(C1)sword, against My ^(C2)Shepherd, And against the Man, My ^(C3)Associate," Declares the LORD of armies. "^(C4)Strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered; And I will ^(C5)turn My hand ^(F1)against the little ones.

-"And it will come about in all the land," Declares the LORD, "That ^(C1)two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it.

-"And I will bring the third part through the ^(C1)fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will ^(C2)call on My name, And I will ^(C3)answer them; I will say, 'They are ^(C4)My people,' And they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"

Behold, a ^(C1)day is coming for the LORD when ^(C2)the spoils taken from you will be divided among you.

For I will ^(C1)gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be taken, the ^(C2)houses plundered, the women raped, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be eliminated from the city.

Then the LORD will go forth and ^(C1)fight against those nations, as ^(F1)when He fights on a day of battle.

On that day His feet will ^(C1)stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be ^(C2)split ^(F1)in its middle from east to west forming a very large valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and the other half toward the south.

And you will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled from the ^(C1)earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. ^(C2)Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with ^(F1)Him!

On that day there will be ^(C1)no light; the ^(F1)luminaries will die out.

For it will be ^(C1)a unique day which is ^(C2)known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at the ^(C3)time of evening there will be light.

And on that day ^(C1)living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.

And the LORD will be ^(C1)King over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be the only ^(C2)one, and His name the only one.

All the land will change into a plain from ^(C1)Geba to ^(C2)Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but ^(F1)Jerusalem will ^(C3)rise and ^(C4)remain on its site from ^(C5)Benjamin's Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the ^(C6)Corner Gate, and from the ^(C7)Tower of Hananel to the king's wine presses.

People will live in it, and there will ^(C1)no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will ^(C2)live in security.

Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will ^(C1)rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth.

And it will come about on that day that a great panic from the LORD will ^(F1)fall on them; and they will ^(C1)seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will ^(F2)be raised against the hand of another.

^(C1)Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the ^(C2)wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.

And just like this ^(C1)plague, there will be a plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey, and all the cattle that will be in those camps.

Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will ^(C1)go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of armies, and to celebrate the ^(C2)Feast of Booths.

And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the ^(C1)King, the LORD of armies, there will be ^(C2)no rain on them.

And if the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the ^(C1)plague with which the LORD strikes the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

This will be the ^(F1)punishment of Egypt, and the ^(F1)punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

On that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "^(C1)HOLY TO THE LORD." And the ^(C2)cooking pots in the LORD'S house will be like the bowls before the altar.

Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be ^(C1)holy to the LORD of armies; and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them. And there will no longer be a ^(F1)(C2)Canaanite in the house of the LORD of armies on that day.