Jonah Goes to Nineveh
3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to lNineveh, that great 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 lNineveh 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 mAnd the people of Nineveh believed God. nThey called for a fast and oput 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 phe arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, qand sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, r“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor sbeast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and sbeast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. tLet everyone turn from his evil way and from uthe violence that is in his hands. 9 vWho knows? God may turn and relent wand turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, xhow they turned from their evil way, xGod relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Jonah’s Anger and the Lord’s Compassion
4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,1 and yhe was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? zThat is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a agracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and arelenting from disaster. 3 bTherefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, cfor it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, d“Do you do well to be angry?”
5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and emade a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant2 and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.3 So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching feast wind, gand the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he hwas faint. And he asked that he might die and said, c“It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, i“Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity jNineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much kcattle?”
Micah
1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah aof Moresheth bin the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw cconcerning dSamaria and Jerusalem.
The Coming Destruction
2 eHear, you peoples, all of you;1
fpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and glet the Lord God be a witness against you,
hthe Lord from his holy temple.
3 For behold, ithe Lord is coming out of jhis place,
and will come down and ktread upon the high places of the earth.
4 And lthe mountains will melt under him,
and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All this is for mthe transgression of Jacob
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
nWhat is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not dSamaria?
And what is othe high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make dSamaria pa heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones qinto the valley
and runcover her foundations.
7 All sher carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
tall her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from tthe fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
8 uFor this I will lament and wail;
I will go vstripped and naked;
I will make lamentation wlike the jackals,
and mourning xlike the ostriches.
9 yFor her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
broll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
cin nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
shall take away from you its standing place.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down dfrom the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of eLachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
fthe transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts2
to gMoresheth-gath;
the houses of hAchzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring ia conqueror to you,
inhabitants of hMareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to jAdullam.
16 kMake yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
for the children of your delight;
kmake yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.
Woe to the Oppressors
2 lWoe to those who devise wickedness
and work evil mon their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and nseize them,
and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
behold, against othis family I am devising disaster,1
from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you pshall not walk haughtily,
qfor it will be a time of disaster.
4 In that day rthey shall take up a taunt song against you
and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
she changes the portion of my people;
show he removes it from me!
tTo an apostate he allots our fields.”
5 Therefore you will have none uto cast the line by lot
in the assembly of the Lord.
6 v“Do not preach”—thus they preach—
w“one should not preach of such things;
xdisgrace will not overtake us.”
7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
vHas the Lord grown impatient?2
Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
to him who walks uprightly?
8 But lately ymy people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly
with no thought of war.3
9 The women of my people you drive out
from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
my splendor forever.
10 zArise and go,
for this is no aplace to rest,
because of buncleanness that destroys
with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man should go about and cutter wind and lies,
saying, “I will preach to you dof wine and strong drink,”
he would be the preacher for this people!
12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
eI will gather fthe remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
like sheep in a fold,
hlike a flock in its pasture,
a noisy multitude of men.
13 iHe who opens the breach goes up before them;
they break through and pass the gate,
jgoing out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
kthe Lord at their head.
Rulers and Prophets Denounced
3 And I said:
lHear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
mIs it not for you to know justice?—
2 you nwho hate the good and love the evil,
owho tear the skin from off my people1
and their flesh from off their bones,
3 pwho eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.
4 qThen they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
rhe will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus says the Lord concerning sthe prophets
who lead my people astray,
twho cry “Peace”
when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore uit shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
vThe sun shall go down on the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
7 wthe seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
xthey shall all cover their lips,
for ythere is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, zI am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob ahis transgression
and to Israel his sin.
9 bHear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
cwho detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
10 dwho build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 eIts heads give judgment for a bribe;
fits priests teach for a price;
gits prophets practice divination for money;
hyet they lean on the Lord and isay,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
jNo disaster shall come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
kZion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem lshall become a heap of ruins,
