Hebrew-English TextI. Summary
Yahweh will avenge the people’s idolatry by exiling them and killing their children. Yahweh will ingather the exiles and the people will confess their sins.
II. Photo
Yahweh will punish his people: “I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride.” (v. 9)
III. Select Verses
2-4: You are not to marry and not to have sons and daughters in this place. For thus said the LORD concerning any sons and daughters that may be born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bear them, and concerning the fathers who beget them in this land: They shall die gruesome deaths. They shall not be lamented or buried; they shall be like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
9: For thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride.
10-11: And when you announce all these things to that people, and they ask you, “Why has the LORD decreed upon us all this fearful evil? What is the iniquity and what the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?” say to them, “Because your fathers deserted Me — declares the LORD — and followed other gods and served them and worshiped them; they deserted Me and did not keep My Instruction.
14-15. Assuredly, a time is coming — declares the LORD — when it shall no more be said, “As the LORD lives who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,” but rather, “As the LORD lives who brought the Israelites out of the northland, and out of all the lands to which He had banished them.” For I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their fathers.
20: Can a man make gods for himself? No-gods are they!
21: Assuredly, I will teach them, Once and for all I will teach them My power and My might. And they shall learn that My name is LORD.
IV. Outline
1. Introduction
2-4. All children will die
5-7. There will be no mourning
8-9. There will be no joyous occasions
10-13. Rationale for exile: idol worship
14-15. The ingathering will be more famous than the exodus
16-18. Yahweh will find all sinners
19-20. Affirmation of faith; future confession
21. Rationale of punishment: Yahweh will teach his name
V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.
VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Photo copied from
http://www.preownedweddingdresses.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/112.jpg
