c Lit. “naked.”
a Septuagint reads “Assyria.”
b Heb. plural; but cf. 4.1; 6.1.
c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d Heb. plural, but cf. “altar” in next line.
a Heb. “their.”
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c Cf. Lev. 7.12–14; where, however, the bread is not to be burned.
d Alluding to the plagues at the time of the Exodus.
e-e Emendation yields “Because you are acting thus toward Me.”
f Cf. Joel 2.2. Emendation yields “darkness”; cf. 5.8.
a I.e., into Judah; cf. 1 Kings 19.3.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c Septuagint reads “the House of Israel.”
d Vv. 26–27 would read well after 6.14.
e Two Akkadian names applied to Saturn, here deliberately pointed with the vowels of Heb. shiqqus, “detestable thing.”
f I.e., who is Lord of all the astral bodies.
a Emendation yields “Joseph,” cf. v. 6, and 5.6, 15, where “Joseph” denotes the northern kingdom.
b-b Taking ba l- as synonymous with ba ‘ad; see Isa. 45.24 and note i-i.
c-c Emendation yields “Or is your territory larger than theirs?”
d-d Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
e-e A poetic designation of the northern kingdom.
f-f Meaning of Heb. uncertain; emendation yields “Can one plow the sea with oxen?”
g Two towns east of the Jordan recovered for Israel by Jeroboam II (see 2 Kings 14.25). For Lo- dabar, cf. 2 Sam. 9.4, 5; 17.27; for Karnaim, cf. Gen. 14.5.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain. The king’s reaping of fodder apparently occurred near the end of the rainy season, and whatever the locust destroyed after that could not be replaced for another year.
b-b Emendation yields “flaming.”
c-c Or “destined for the pickax”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d Or “pickax”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
e-e Lit. “eat bread.”
f I.e., by profession.
g Meaning of Heb. uncertain; emendation yields “sheep breeder”; cf. the next verse and 1.1.
h-h Emendation yields “be ravished”; cf. Lam. 5.11.
i Cf. Hos. 9.3 and note.
a Heb. qayis, lit. “summer fruit.”
b-b Heb. qes.
c-c Emendation yields “who on every new moon devour the needy, and on every sabbath the humble of the land”; cf. v. 5.
d-d Giving short measures of grain, but using oversize weights for the silver received in payment.
e Or “concerning”; cf. 6.8 with note.
f I.e., the earth; cf. vv. 8 and 9d.
g Lit. “the end.”
h-h Emendation yields “south to west.”
i See I Kings 12.28–29.
j See 5.5 with note.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b A coarse sieve used for cleansing grain of straw and stones, or sand of pebbles and shells.
c-c I.e., the House of David shall reestablish its authority over the nations that were ruled by David.
d Cf. Lev. 26.5.
Obadiah
1 The prophecy of Obadiah.
We have received tidings from the LORD,
And an envoy has been sent out among the nations:
“Up! Let us rise up against her for battle.”
Thus said my Lord GOD concerning Edom:
2I will make you least among nations,
You shall be most despised.
3Your arrogant heart has seduced you,
You who dwell in clefts of the rock,
In your lofty abode.
You think in your heart,
“Who can pull me down to earth?”
4Should you nest as high as the eagle,
Should your eyrie be lodged ’mong the stars,
Even from there I will pull you down
—declares the LORD.
5If thieves were to come to you,
Marauders by night,
They would steal no more than they needed.
If vintagers came to you,
They would surely leave some gleanings.
How utterly you are destroyed!
6How thoroughly rifled is Esau,
How ransacked his hoards!
7All your allies turned you back
At the frontier;
Your own confederates
Have duped and overcome you;
[Those who ate] your bread
Have planted snares under you.
He is bereft of understanding.
8In that day
—declares the LORD—
I will make the wise vanish from Edom,
Understanding from Esau’s mount.
9Your warriors shall lose heart, O Teman,
And not a man on Esau’s mount
Shall survive the slaughter.
10For the outrage to your brother Jacob,
Disgrace shall engulf you,
And you shall perish forever.
11On that day when you stood aloof,
When aliens carried off his goods,
When foreigners entered his gates
And cast lots for Jerusalem,
You were as one of them.
12a-How could you-a gaze with glee
On your brother that day,
On his day of calamity!
How could you gloat
Over the people of Judah
On that day of ruin!
How could you loudly jeer
On a day of anguish!
13How could you enter the gate of My people
On its day of disaster,
Gaze in glee with the others
On its misfortune
On its day of disaster,
And lay hands on its wealth
On its day of disaster!
14How could you stand at the passesb
To cut down its fugitives!
How could you betray those who fled
On that day of anguish!
15As you did, so shall it be done to you;
Your conduct shall be requited.
Yea, against all nations
The day of the LORD is at hand.
16That same cup that youc drank on My Holy Mount
Shall all nations drink evermore,d
Drink till their speech grows thick,
And they become as though they had never been.
17But on Zion’s mount a remnant shall survive,
And it shall be holy.e
The House of Jacob shall dispossess
Those who dispossessed them.
18The House of Jacob shall be fire,
And the House of Joseph flame,
And the House of Esau shall be straw;
They shall burn it and devour it,
And no survivor shall be left of the House of Esau
—for the LORD has spoken.
19fThus they shall possess the Negeb and Mount Esau as well, the Shephelah and Philistia. They shall possess the Ephraimite country and the district of Samaria,g and Benjaminh along with Gilead. 20And that exiled force of Israelites [shall possess] what belongs to the Phoenicians as far as Zarephath,i while the Jerusalemite exile community of Sepharadj shall possess the towns of the Negeb. 21For k-liberators shall march up-k on Mount Zion to wreak judgment on Mount Esau; and dominion shall be the LORD’s.
a-a Lit. “Do not,” and so through v. 14.
b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c I.e., the Israelites.
d Emendation yields “at My hand,” cf. Isa. 51.17; Jer. 25.15; Ps. 75.9.
e I.e., inviolate; cf. Jer. 2.3.
f Meaning of parts of vv. 19–21 uncertain.
g After the exile of the northern tribes, the city and district of Samaria were occupied mainly by non-Israelites.
h Emendation yields “the land of the Ammonites.”
i A town in southern Phoenicia; see 1 Kings 17.9.
j Probably Asia Minor, called Saparda in Persian cuneiform inscriptions.
k-k Several ancient versions read, “they [the exiles from Jerusalem named in the preceding verse] shall march up victorious.”
Jonah
1 The word of the LORD came to Jonaha son of Amittai: 2Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim judgment upon it; for their wickedness has come before Me.
3Jonah, however, started out to flee to Tarshish from the LORD’s service. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went aboard to sail with the others to Tarshish, away from the service of the LORD.
4But the LORD cast a mighty wind upon the sea, and such a great tempest came upon the sea that the ship was in danger of breaking up. 5In their fright, the sailors cried out, each to his own god; and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make it lighter for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the vessel where he lay down and fell asleep. 6The captain went over to him and cried out, “How can you be sleeping so soundly! Up, call upon your god! Perhaps the god will be kind to us and we will not perish.”
7The men said to one another, “Let us cast lots and find out on whose account this misfortune has come upon us.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8They said to him, “Tell us, you who have brought this misfortune upon us, what is your business? Where have you come from? What is your country, and of what people are you?” 9“I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the LORD, the God of Heaven, who made both sea and land.” 10The men were greatly terrified, and they asked him, “What have you done?” And when the men learned that he was fleeing from the service of the LORD—for so he told them—11they said to him, “What must we do to you to make the sea calm around us?” For the sea was growing more and more stormy. 12He answered, “Heave me overboard, and the sea will calm down for you; for I know that this terrible storm came upon you on my account.” 13Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to regain the shore, but they could not, for the sea was growing more and more stormy about them. 14Then they cried out to the LORD: “Oh, please, LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not hold us guilty of killing an innocent person! For You, O LORD, by Your will, have brought this about.” 15And they heaved Jonah overboard, and the sea stopped raging.
16The men feared the LORD greatly; they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and they made vows.
2 The LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the fish’s belly three days and three nights. 2Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish. 3He said:
In my trouble I called to the LORD,
And He answered me;
From the belly of Sheol I cried out,
And You heard my voice.
4You cast me into the depths,
Into the heart of the sea,
The floods engulfed me;
All Your breakers and billows
Swept over me.
5I thought I was driven away
Out of Your sight:
Would I ever gaze again
Upon Your holy Temple?
6The waters closed in over me,
The deep engulfed me.
Weeds twined around my head.
7I sank to the base of the mountains;
The bars of the earth closed upon me forever.
Yet You brought my life up from the pit,
O LORD my God!
8When my life was ebbing away,
I called the LORD to mind;
And my prayer came before
