Quotes About Despair

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones.

Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ëOur bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.í

Ephraimís glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.

Even if they raise their children, I will bereave them of each one. Yes, woe be to them when I turn away from them!

Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!

A sword will flash through their cities; it will destroy the bars of their gates and consume them in their own plans.

Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.

Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?

The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away.

Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale.

They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

“Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.”

This is what the Lord GOD says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong will only see a hundred return, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have but ten left in the house of Israel.”

Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ëAlas! Alas!í in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea was raging against them more and more.

For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me.

The waters engulfed me to take my life; the watery depths closed around me; the seaweed wrapped around my head.

And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonahís head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich.

For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.

Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.