The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing beside1 the altar, and he said:
“Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the people;2
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away;
not one of them shall escape.
2 h“If they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
iif they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.
3 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
from there I will search them out and take them;
and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
4 And if they go into captivity before their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
and I will fix my eyes upon them
jfor evil and not for good.”
5 The Lord God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
and kall who dwell in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile,
and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and founds his vault upon the earth;
lwho calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
the Lord is his name.
7 “Are you not like the Cushites to me,
O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.
“Did I not bring up mIsrael from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from nCaphtor and the Syrians from oKir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
except that pI will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.
9 “For behold, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a qsieve,
but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
The Restoration of Israel
11 t“In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins
and urebuild it as in the days of old,
12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are vcalled by my name,”3
declares the Lord who does this.
13 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
w“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
xthe mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
14 yI will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they shall rebuild the zruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 aI will plant them on their land,
and they shall never again be uprooted
out of the land that I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
Obadiah
1 The vision of Obadiah.
Edom Will Be Humbled
Thus says the Lord God aconcerning Edom:
bWe have heard a report from the Lord,
and a messenger has been sent among the nations:
“Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!”
2 Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
you shall be utterly despised.1
3 The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rock,2
in your lofty dwelling,
who say in your heart,
“Who will bring me down to the ground?”
4 Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
though your nest is set among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,
declares the Lord.
5 cIf thieves came to you,
if plunderers came by night—
how you have been destroyed!—
would they not steal only enough for themselves?
If grape gatherers came to you,
would they not leave gleanings?
6 How Esau has been pillaged,
his treasures sought out!
7 dAll your allies have driven you to your border;
those at peace with you have deceived you;
they have prevailed against you;
those who eat your bread3 have set a trap beneath you—
8 Will I not on that day, declares the Lord,
destroy the wise men out of Edom,
and understanding out of Mount Esau?
9 And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman,
so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.
Edom’s Violence Against Jacob
10 fBecause of the violence done to your gbrother Jacob,
shame shall cover you,
and you shall be cut off forever.
11 hOn the day that you stood aloof,
ion the day that strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
and jcast lots for Jerusalem,
you were like one of them.
12 But do not gloat over the day of your brother
in the day of his misfortune;
do not krejoice over the people of Judah
in the day of their ruin;
do not boast5
in the day of distress.
13 Do not enter the gate of my people
in the day of their calamity;
do not gloat over his disaster
in the day of his calamity;
do not loot his wealth
in the day of his calamity.
14 Do not stand at the crossroads
to cut off his fugitives;
do not hand over his survivors
in the day of distress.
The Day of the Lord Is Near
15 For the lday of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
mAs you have done, it shall be done to you;
your deeds shall return on your own head.
16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain,
so all the nations shall drink continually;
they shall drink and swallow,
and shall be as though they had never been.
17 But nin Mount Zion there shall be those who escape,
and it shall be holy,
and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.
18 oThe house of Jacob shall be a fire,
and the house of Joseph a flame,
and the house of Esau stubble;
they shall burn them and consume them,
and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau,
for the Lord has spoken.
The Kingdom of the Lord
19 Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau,
and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines;
they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria,
and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
20 The exiles of this host of the people of Israel
shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath,
and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
shall possess the cities of the Negeb.
21 Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion
to rule Mount Esau,
and pthe kingdom shall be the Lord’s.
Jonah
Jonah Flees the Presence of the Lord
1 Now the word of the Lord came to aJonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to bNineveh, that cgreat city, and call out against it, for their evil1 has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, daway from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and ethere was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then fthe mariners were afraid, and each gcried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and hwas fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! iPerhaps the god will give a thought to us, jthat we may not perish.”
Jonah Is Thrown into the Sea
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us kcast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the lGod of heaven, mwho made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard2 to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and nlay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have odone as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and pthe sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men qfeared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
A Great Fish Swallows Jonah
17 3 And the Lord rappointed4 a great fish to swallow up Jonah. sAnd Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah’s Prayer
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
tand he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
uall your breakers and your waves
passed over me.
4 Then I said, v‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I went down,
to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.
Yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
7 When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and wmy prayer came to you,
xinto your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to yvain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
zSalvation belongs to the Lord!”
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Jonah Goes to Nineveh
3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the asecond time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that bgreat city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,1 three days’ journey in breadth.2 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 cAnd the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The People of Nineveh Repent
6 The word reached3 the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither dman nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them ecall out mightily to God. Let everyone fturn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 gWho knows? hGod may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God irelented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
