9They who cling to empty folly
Forsake their own welfare,a
10But I, with loud thanksgiving,
Will sacrifice to You;
What I have vowed I will perform.
Deliverance is the LORD’s!
11The LORD commanded the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon dry land.
3 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2“Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it what I tell you.” 3Jonah went at once to Nineveh in accordance with the LORD’s command.
Nineveh was a-an enormously large city-a a three days’ walk across. 4Jonah started out and made his way into the city the distance of one day’s walk, and proclaimed: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
5The people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and great and small alike put on sackcloth. 6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7And he had the word cried through Nineveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles: No man or beast—of flock or herd—shall taste anything! They shall not graze, and they shall not drink water! 8They shall be covered with sackcloth—man and beast—and shall cry mightily to God. Let everyone turn back from his evil ways and from the injustice of which he is guilty. 9Who knows but that God may turn and relent? He may turn back from His wrath, so that we do not perish.”
10God saw what they did, how they were turning back from their evil ways. And God renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon them, and did not carry it out.
4 This displeased Jonah greatly, and he was grieved. 2He prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD! Isn’t this just what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I fled beforehand to Tarshish. For I know that You are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, renouncing punishment. 3Please, LORD, take my life, for I would rather die than live.” 4The LORD replied, “Are you that deeply grieved?”
5Now Jonah had left the city and found a place east of the city. He made a booth there and sat under it in the shade, until he should see what happened to the city. 6The LORD God provided a ricinus plant,a which grew up over Jonah, to provide shade for his head and save him from discomfort. Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7But the next day at dawn God provided a worm, which attacked the plant so that it withered. 8And when the sun rose, God provided a sultryb east wind; the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, and he became faint. He begged for death, saying, “I would rather die than live.” 9Then God said to Jonah, “Are you so deeply grieved about the plant?” “Yes,” he replied, “so deeply that I want to die.”
10Then the LORD said: “You cared about the plant, which you did not work for and which you did not grow, which appeared overnight and perished overnight. 11And should not I care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well!”c
a Mentioned in 2 Kings 14.25.
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a-a Lit. “a large city of God.”
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain; others “gourd.”
b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c Infants and beasts are not held responsible for their actions.
Micah
1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morashtite, who prophesied concerning Samaria and Jerusalem in the reigns of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah.
2Listen, all you peoples,
Give heed, O earth, and all it holds;
And let my Lord GOD be your accuser—
My Lord from His holy abode.
3For lo! the LORD
Is coming forth from His dwelling-place,
He will come down and stride
Upon the heights of the earth.
4The mountains shall melt under Him
And the valleys burst open—
Like wax before fire,
Like water cascading down a slope.
5All this is for the transgression of Jacob,
And for the sins of the House of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob
But Samaria,
And what the shrinesa of Judah
But Jerusalem?
6So I will turn Samaria
Into a ruin in open country,
Into ground for planting vineyards;
For I will tumble her stones into the valley
And lay her foundations bare.
7All her sculptured images shall be smashed,
And all her harlot’s wealth be burned,
And I will make a waste heap of all her idols,
For they were amassed from fees for harlotry,
And they shall become harlots’ fees again.
8Because of this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked!
I will lament as sadly as the jackals,
As mournfully as the ostriches.
9For herb wound is incurable,
It has reached Judah,
It has spread to the gate of my people,
To Jerusalem.
10cTell it not in Gath,
Refrain from weeping;d
In Beth-leaphrah,
Strew duste over your [head].
11Pass on, inhabitants of Shaphir!
Did not the inhabitants of Zaanan
Have to go forth naked in shame?
There is lamentation in Beth-ezel—
It will withdraw its support from you.
12Though the inhabitants of Maroth
Hoped for good,
Yet disaster from the LORD descended
Upon the gate of Jerusalem.
13Hitch the steeds to the chariot,
Inhabitant of Lachish!
It is the beginning
Of Fair Zion’s guilt;
Israel’s transgressions
Can be traced to you!
14Truly, you must give a farewell gift
To Moresheth-gath.
f-The houses of Achzib are-f
To the kings of Israel
Like a spring that fails.
15A dispossessor will I bring to you
Who dwell in Mareshah;
At Adullam the glory
Of Israel shall set.
16gShear off your hair and make yourself bald
For the children you once delighted in;
Make yourself as bald as a vulture,
For they have been banished from you.
2
Ah, those who plan iniquity
And design evil on their beds;
When morning dawns, they do it,
For they have the power.
2They covet fields, and seize them;
Houses, and take them away.
They defraud men of their homes,
And people of their land.
3Assuredly, thus said the LORD: I am planning such a misfortune against this clan that you will not be able to free your necks from it. You will not be able to walk erect; it will be such a time of disaster.
4In that day,
One shall recite a poem about you,
And utter a bitter lament,
And shall say:
a-“My people’s portion changes hands;
How it slips away from me!
Our field is allotted to a rebel.b
We are utterly ravaged.”-a
5Truly, none of you
Shall cast a lot cordc
In the assembly of the LORD!
6“Stop preaching!” they preach.
“That’s no way to preach;
a-Shame shall not overtake [us].
7Is the House of Jacob condemned?-a
Is the LORD’s patience short?
Is such His practice?”
To be sure, My words are friendly
To those who walk in rectitude;
8But d-an enemy arises against-d My people.
You strip the mantle e-with the cloak-e
Off such as pass unsuspecting,
a-Who are turned away from war.-a
9You drive the women of My people away
From their pleasant homes;
You deprive their infants
Of My glory forever.
10Up and depart!
This is no resting place
a-Because of [your] defilement.
Terrible destruction shall befall.-a
11If a man were to go about uttering
Windy, baseless falsehoods:
“I’ll preach to you in favor of wine and liquor”—
He would be a preacher [acceptable] to that people.
12fI will assemble Jacob, all of you;
I will bring together the remnant of Israel;
I will make them all like sheep g-of Bozrah,-g
Like a flock inside its pena—
They will be noisy with people.
13One who makes a breach
Goes before them;
They enlarge it to a gate
And leave by it.
Their king marches before them,
The LORD at their head.
3
I said:
Listen, you rulers of Jacob,
You chiefs of the House of Israel!
For you ought to know what is right,
2aBut you hate good and love evil.
3You have devoured My people’s flesh;
You have flayed the skin off them,
And their flesh off their bones.
b-And after tearing their skins off them,
And their flesh off their bones,-b
And breaking their bones to bits,
You have cut it up c-as into-c a pot,
Like meat in a caldron.
4Someday they shall cry out to the LORD,
But He will not answer them;
At that time He will hide His face from them,
In accordance with the wrongs they have done.
5Thus said the LORD to the prophets
Who lead My people astray,
Who cry “Peace!”
When they have something to chew,
But launch a war on him
Who fails to fill their mouths:
6Assuredly,
It shall be night for you
So that you cannot prophesy,
And it shall be dark for you
So that you cannot divine;
The sun shall set on the prophets,
And the day shall be darkened for them.
7The seers shall be shamed
And the diviners confounded;
They shall cover their upper lips,d
Because no response comes from God.
8But I,
I am filled with strength by the spirit of the LORD,
And with judgment and courage,
To declare to Jacob his transgressions
And to Israel his sin.
9Hear this, you rulers of the House of Jacob,
You chiefs of the House of Israel,
Who detest justice
And make crooked all that is straight,
10Who build Zion with crime,
Jerusalem with iniquity!
11Her rulers judge for gifts,
Her priests give rulings for a fee,
And her prophets divine for pay;
Yet they rely upon the LORD, saying,
“The LORD is in our midst;
No calamity shall overtake us.”
12Assuredly, because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field,
And Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And the Temple Mount
A shrine in the woods.
4
aIn the days to come,
The Mount of the LORD’s House shall stand
Firm above the mountains;
And it shall tower above the hills.
The peoples shall gaze on it with joy,
2And the many nations shall go and shall say:
“Come,
Let us go up to the Mount of the LORD,
To the House of the God of Jacob;
That He may instruct us in His ways,
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For instruction shall come forthb from Zion,
The word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3Thus He will judge among the many peoples,
And arbitrate for the multitude of nations,
However distant;
And they shall beat their swords into plowsharesc
And their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not take up
Sword against nation;
They shall never again knowd war;
4But every
