Study Desk

Come to Bethel and rebel; rebel even more at Gilgal!⁽ⁱ⁾ Bring your sacrifices every morning,^(j) your tenths every three days.

Offer leavened bread as a thank offering,^(k) and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings,^(l) for that is what you Israelites love to do!^(m) This is the Lord 's declaration.

I gave you absolutely nothing to eat^[b](n) in all your cities, a shortage of food in all your communities, yet you did not return to Me.^(o) This is the Lord 's declaration.

I also withheld the rain from you^(p) while there were still three months until harvest. I sent rain on one city but no rain on another.^(q) One field received rain while a field with no rain withered.^(r)

Two or three cities staggered to another city to drink water^(s) but were not satisfied,^(t) yet you did not return^(u) to Me. This is the Lord 's declaration.

I struck you with blight and mildew;^(v) the locust devoured^(w) your many gardens and vineyards, your fig trees and olive trees,^(x) yet you did not return to Me.^(y) This is the Lord 's declaration.

I sent plagues like those of Egypt;^(z) I killed your young men with the sword,^(aa) along with your captured horses.^(ab) I caused the stench of your camp to fill your nostrils,^(ac) yet you did not return to Me.^(ad) This is the Lord 's declaration.

I overthrew some of you as I^[c] overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,^(ae) and you were like a burning stick snatched from a fire,^(af) yet you did not return to Me^(ag)— this is the Lord 's declaration.

Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you, and since I will do that to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God!^(ah)

He is here: the One who forms the mountains,^(ai) creates the wind,^(aj) and reveals His^[d] thoughts to man,^(ak) the One who makes the dawn out of darkness and strides on the heights of the earth.^(al) Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name.^(am)