Jonah 3 - 4

Ninevites Turn from Their Evil Ways

Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out to it this very call which I am going to speak to you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. 4 Then Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk; and he called out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
5 And the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. 7 And he cried out and said,

“In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, animal, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat, and do not let them drink water.

But both man and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God with their strength that each may turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands.

Who knows, God may turn and relent and turn away from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”

10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them.

Jonah’s Anger

But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil. 3 So now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” 4 And Yahweh said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”
5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. And there he made a booth for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So Yahweh God appointed a plant, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil. And Jonah was extremely glad about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm at the breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and it dried up. 8 Then it happened that as the sun rose up, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun struck down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and asked with all his soul to die and said, “Death is better to me than life.”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” 10 Then Yahweh said, “You had pity on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came to be overnight and perished overnight. 11 So should I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

Micah 1 - 2

Calamity in Israel and Judah

The word of Yahweh which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he beheld concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2

Hear, O peoples, all of you;

Give heed, O earth, as well as its fullness,

And let Lord Yahweh be a witness against you,

The Lord from His holy temple.

For behold, Yahweh is going forth from His place.

He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

The mountains will melt under Him,

And the valleys will be split,

Like wax before the fire,

Like water poured down a steep place.

All this is for the transgression of Jacob

And for the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not Samaria?

What is the high place of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

So I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field,

Planting places for a vineyard.

And I will pour her stones down into the valley

And will lay bare her foundations.

And all of her graven images will be smashed,

And all of her earnings will be burned with fire

And all of her idols I will make desolate,

For she collected them from a harlot’s earnings,

And to the earnings of a harlot they will return.

Because of this I must lament and wail;

I must go barefoot and naked;

I must make a lament like the jackals

And a mourning like the ostriches.

For her wound is incurable,

For it has come to Judah;

It has reached the gate of my people,

Even to Jerusalem.

Tell it not in Gath,

Weep not at all.

At Beth‑le‑aphrah roll yourself in the dust.

Pass on by, inhabitant of Shaphir, in shameful nakedness.

The inhabitant of Zaanan does not go out.

The lamentation of Beth‑ezel: “He will take from you its support.”

For the inhabitant of Maroth

Writhes in waiting for good

Because a calamity has come down from Yahweh

To the gate of Jerusalem.

Harness the chariot to the team of horses,

O inhabitant of Lachish—

She was the beginning of sin

To the daughter of Zion—

Because in you were found

The transgressions of Israel.

Therefore you will give parting gifts

On behalf of Moresheth‑gath;

The houses of Achzib will become a deception

To the kings of Israel.

Moreover, I will bring on you

The one who takes possession,

O inhabitant of Mareshah.

The glory of Israel will enter Adullam.

Make yourself bald and cut off your hair,

Because of the children of your delight;

Extend your baldness like the eagle,

For they will go from you into exile.

An Evil Time

Woe to those who devise wickedness,

Who work out evil on their beds!

When the light of the morning comes, they do it,

For it is in the power of their hands.

And they covet fields and then tear them away,

And houses, and take them away.

And they oppress a man and his house,

A man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says Yahweh,

“Behold, I am devising against this family an evil demise

From which you cannot remove your necks;

And you will not walk haughtily,

For it will be an evil time.

On that day they will take up against you a taunt

And utter a bitter wailing and say,

‘We are completely devastated!

He exchanges the portion of my people;

How He removes it from me!

To the faithless one, He apportions our fields.’

Therefore you will have no one stretching a measuring line

For you by lot in the assembly of Yahweh.

‘Do not speak, dripping out words,’ they say while dripping out words.

But if they do not drip out words concerning these things,

Dishonor will not be turned back.

Is it being said, O house of Jacob:

‘Is the Spirit of Yahweh impatient?

Are these His deeds?’

Do not My words do good

To the one walking uprightly?

And recently My people have arisen as an enemy—

You strip the robe off the garment

From unsuspecting passers‑by,

From those returned from war.

The women of My people you drive out,

Each one from her pleasant house.

From her infants you take My splendor forever.

Arise and go,

For this is no place of rest

Because of the uncleanness that wreaks destruction,

A painful destruction.

If a man walking after wind and lying

Had acted falsely and said,

‘I will speak, dripping out words to you concerning wine and liquor,’

He would be one who drips out words as a spokesman to this people.

“I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob;

I will surely gather the remnant of Israel.

I will put them together like sheep in the fold;

Like a flock in the midst of its pasture

They will be noisy with men.

The breaker goes up before them;

They break out, pass through the gate, and go out by it.

So their king goes on before them,

And Yahweh at their head.”