The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing beside1 the altar, and he said:
e“Strike the capitals until ethe thresholds fshake,
gand shatter them on the heads of all the people;2
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
hnot one of them shall flee away;
not one of them shall escape.
2 i“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 jthe top of Carmel,
from there I will search them out and take them;
kand if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
4 lAnd if they go into captivity before their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
mand I will fix my eyes upon them
for evil and not for good.”
5 The Lord God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and nit melts,
and all who dwell in it mourn,
oand all of it rises like the Nile,
oand sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
6 pwho builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and founds his vault upon the earth;
qwho calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
rthe Lord is his name.
7 “Are you not like sthe Cushites to me,
O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.
t“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
and uthe Philistines from vCaphtor and the Syrians from wKir?
8 Behold, xthe eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
yexcept that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.
9 “For behold, I will command,
zand shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, a‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’
The Restoration of Israel
11 “In that day bI will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
12 cthat they may possess the remnant of Edom
and dall the nations who are called by my name,”3
declares the Lord who does this.
13 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
e“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
fthe mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
14 gI will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and hthey shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
ithey shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 jI will plant them on their land,
kand they shall never again be uprooted
out of the land lthat 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 cThe pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rock,2
in your lofty dwelling,
dwho 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 If ethieves came to you,
if plunderers came by night—
how you have been destroyed!—
would they not steal only enough for themselves?
If egrape gatherers came to you,
would they not leave gleanings?
6 fHow Esau has been pillaged,
his treasures sought out!
7 All your allies have driven you to your border;
those at peace with you have deceived you;
they have prevailed against you;
8 iWill I not on that day, declares the Lord,
destroy the wise men out of Edom,
and understanding out of jMount Esau?
9 And your mighty men shall be dismayed, kO Teman,
so that every man from jMount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.
Edom’s Violence Against Jacob
10 lBecause of the violence done to your brother Jacob,
shame shall cover you,
mand you shall be cut off forever.
11 nOn the day that you stood aloof,
oon the day that strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
pand cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were like one of them.
12 qBut do not gloat over the day of your brother
in the day of his misfortune;
rdo not rejoice over the people of Judah
in the day of their ruin;
in the day of distress.
13 tDo not enter the gate of my people
in the day of their calamity;
tdo not gloat over his disaster
in the day of his calamity;
udo not loot his wealth
in the day of his calamity.
14 vDo 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 wthe day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
xAs you have done, it shall be done to you;
your deeds shall return on your own head.
16 yFor as you have drunk on zmy holy mountain,
so all the nations shall drink continually;
they shall drink and swallow,
and shall be as though they had never been.
17 aBut in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape,
and it shall be holy,
band the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.
18 cThe house of Jacob shall be a fire,
and the house of Joseph a flame,
and the house of Esau dstubble;
they shall burn them and consume them,
eand there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau,
for the Lord has spoken.
The Kingdom of the Lord
19 Those of fthe Negeb bshall possess gMount Esau,
and those of the Shephelah shall possess hthe land of the Philistines;
they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of iSamaria,
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 jZarephath,
and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
shall possess the cities of the Negeb.
21 kSaviors shall go up to Mount Zion
to rule gMount Esau,
and lthe 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, dfor their evil1 has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah erose to flee to fTarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to gJoppa and found a ship going to fTarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to fTarshish, haway from the presence of the Lord.
4 But ithe Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened jto break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and keach cried out to his god. And lthey 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 was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, kcall out to your god! mPerhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
Jonah Is Thrown into the Sea
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us ncast 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 othe Lord, the God of heaven, pwho 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 hhe 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, qfor 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 rlay not on us innocent blood, sfor you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, tand the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, uand they offered a sacrifice to the Lord vand made vows.
A Great Fish Swallows Jonah
17 3 And the Lord appointed4 a great fish to swallow up Jonah. wAnd 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,
x“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
yout of the belly of Sheol I cried,
zand you heard my voice.
3 aFor you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
ball your waves and your billows
passed over me.
4 cThen I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
dyet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
5 eThe waters closed in over me fto take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6 at 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,
gand my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 hThose who pay regard to vain idols
iforsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 jBut I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
kSalvation 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 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.
