As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down so much on Jonah’s head that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”

Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“Yes,” he replied. “It is right. I’m angry enough to die!”

Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”

Look, the Lord is leaving His place
and coming down to trample
the heights of the earth.

All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellion
and the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the rebellion of Jacob?
Isn’t it Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Isn’t it Jerusalem?

For her wound is incurable
and has reached even Judah;
it has approached the gate of my people,
as far as Jerusalem.

Depart in shameful nakedness,
you residents of Shaphir;
the residents of Zaanan will not come out.
Beth-ezel is lamenting;
its support is taken from you.

Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair
in sorrow for your precious children;
make yourselves as bald as an eagle,
for they have been taken from you into exile.

Woe to those who dream up wickedness
and prepare evil plans on their beds!
At morning light they accomplish it
because the power is in their hands.

“Quit your preaching,” they preach.
“They should not preach these things;
shame will not overtake us.”

House of Jacob, should it be asked,
“Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient?
Are these the things He does?”
Don’t My words bring good
to the one who walks uprightly?

Get up and leave,
for this is not your place of rest,
because defilement brings destruction—
a grievous destruction!

One who breaks open the way
will advance before them;
they will break out, pass through the gate,
and leave by it.
Their King will pass through before them,
the Lord as their leader.

Then I said, “Now listen, leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of the house of Israel.
Aren’t you supposed to know what is just?

This is what the Lord says
concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who proclaim peace
when they have food to sink their teeth into
but declare war against the one
who puts nothing in their mouths.

As for me, however, I am filled with power
by the Spirit of the Lord,
with justice and courage,
to proclaim to Jacob his rebellion
and to Israel his sin.

Listen to this, leaders of the house of Jacob,
you rulers of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
and pervert everything that is right,

Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe,
her priests teach for payment,
and her prophets practice divination for money.
Yet they lean on the Lord, saying,
“Isn’t the Lord among us?
No disaster will overtake us.”

and many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about His ways
so we may walk in His paths.”
For instruction will go out of Zion
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

On that day—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
I will assemble the lame
and gather the scattered,
those I have injured.

Now, why are you shouting loudly?
Is there no king with you?
Has your counselor perished
so that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?

Many nations have now assembled against you;
they say, “Let her be defiled,
and let us feast our eyes on Zion.”

Now, daughter who is under attack,
you slash yourself in grief;
a siege is set against us!
They are striking the judge of Israel
on the cheek with a rod.

Bethlehem Ephrathah,
you are small among the clans of Judah;
One will come from you
to be ruler over Israel for Me.
His origin is from antiquity,
from eternity.

Therefore, He will abandon them until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of His brothers will return
to the people of Israel.

They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
the land of Nimrod with a drawn blade.
So He will rescue us from Assyria
when it invades our land,
when it marches against our territory.

Then the remnant of Jacob
will be among the nations, among many peoples,
like a lion among animals of the forest,
like a young lion among flocks of sheep,
which tramples and tears as it passes through,
and there is no one to rescue them.

Now listen to what the Lord is saying:

Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.

Mankind, He has told you what is good
and what it is the Lord requires of you:
to act justly,
to love faithfulness,
and to walk humbly with your God.

The voice of Yahweh calls out to the city
(and it is wise to fear Your name):
“Pay attention to the rod
and the One who ordained it.

“As a result, I have begun to strike you severely,
bringing desolation because of your sins.

Godly people have vanished from the land;
there is no one upright among the people.
All of them wait in ambush to shed blood;
they hunt each other with a net.

The best of them is like a brier;
the most upright is worse than a hedge of thorns.
The day of your watchmen,
the day of your punishment, is coming;
at this time their panic is here.

Surely a son considers his father a fool,
a daughter opposes her mother,
and a daughter-in-law is against her mother-in-law;
a man’s enemies are the men of his own household.

But I will look to the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.

Then my enemy will see,
and she will be covered with shame,
the one who said to me,
“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will look at her in triumph;
at that time she will be trampled
like mud in the streets.

Then the earth will become a wasteland
because of its inhabitants
and as a result of their actions.

Shepherd Your people with Your staff,
the flock that is Your possession.
They live alone in a woodland
surrounded by pastures.
Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in ancient times.

I will perform miracles for them
as in the days of your exodus
from the land of Egypt.

Who is a God like You,
removing iniquity and passing over rebellion
for the remnant of His inheritance?
He does not hold on to His anger forever,
because He delights in faithful love.

He will again have compassion on us;
He will vanquish our iniquities.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.

You will show loyalty to Jacob
and faithful love to Abraham,
as You swore to our fathers
from days long ago.

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord takes vengeance
and is fierce in wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance against His foes;
He is furious with His enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished.
His path is in the whirlwind and storm,
and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

Who can withstand His indignation?
Who can endure His burning anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
even rocks are shattered before Him.

The Lord is good,
a stronghold in a day of distress;
He cares for those who take refuge in Him.

For they will be consumed
like entangled thorns,
like the drink of a drunkard
and like straw that is fully dry.

One has gone out from you,
who plots evil against Yahweh,
and is a wicked counselor.

This is what the Lord says:

Though they are strong and numerous,
they will still be mowed down,
and he will pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no longer.

One who scatters is coming up against you.
Man the fortifications!
Watch the road!
Brace yourself!
Summon all your strength!

He gives orders to his officers;
they stumble as they advance.
They race to its wall;
the protective shield is set in place.

Beauty is stripped,
she is carried away;
her ladies-in-waiting moan
like the sound of doves,
and beat their breasts.

“Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!”
There is no end to the treasure,
an abundance of every precious thing.

Where is the lions’ lair,
or the feeding ground of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness prowled,
and the lion’s cub,
with nothing to frighten them away?

Then all who see you will recoil from you, saying,
“Nineveh is devastated;
who will show sympathy to her?”
Where can I find anyone to comfort you?

Are you better than Thebes
that sat along the Nile
with water surrounding her,
whose rampart was the sea,
the river her wall?

There is no remedy for your injury;
your wound is severe.
All who hear the news about you
will clap their hands because of you,
for who has not experienced
your constant cruelty?

Why do You force me to look at injustice?
Why do You tolerate wrongdoing?
Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.

This is why the law is ineffective
and justice never emerges.
For the wicked restrict the righteous;
therefore, justice comes out perverted.

Look at the nations and observe—
be utterly astounded!
For something is taking place in your days
that you will not believe
when you hear about it.

Then they sweep by like the wind
and pass through.
They are guilty; their strength is their god.

Are You not from eternity, Yahweh my God?
My Holy One, You will not die.
Lord, You appointed them to execute judgment;
my Rock, You destined them to punish us.

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,
and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
So why do You tolerate those who are treacherous?
Why are You silent
while one who is wicked swallows up
one who is more righteous than himself?

The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook,
catch them in their dragnet,
and gather them in their fishing net;
that is why they are glad and rejoice.

That is why they sacrifice to their dragnet
and burn incense to their fishing net,
for by these things their portion is rich
and their food plentiful.

For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
it testifies about the end and will not lie.
Though it delays, wait for it,
since it will certainly come and not be late.

Look, his ego is inflated;
he is without integrity.
But the righteous one will live by his faith.

Moreover, wine betrays;
an arrogant man is never at rest.
He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,
and like Death he is never satisfied.
He gathers all the nations to himself;
he collects all the peoples for himself.

Won’t all of these take up a taunt against him,
with mockery and riddles about him?
They will say:

Woe to him who amasses what is not his—
how much longer?—
and loads himself with goods taken in pledge.

Is it not from the Lord of Hosts
that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire
and countries exhaust themselves for nothing?

For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory,
as the waters cover the sea.

What use is a carved idol
after its craftsman carves it?
It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies.
For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it
and makes idols that cannot speak.

Woe to him who says to wood: Wake up!
or to mute stone: Come alive!
Can it teach?
Look! It may be plated with gold and silver,
yet there is no breath in it at all.

But the Lord is in His holy temple;
let everyone on earth
be silent in His presence.

God comes from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran.Selah
His splendor covers the heavens,
and the earth is full of His praise.

His brilliance is like light;
rays are flashing from His hand.
This is where His power is hidden.

Are You angry at the rivers, Lord?
Is Your wrath against the rivers?
Or is Your rage against the sea
when You ride on Your horses,
Your victorious chariot?

You pierce his head
with his own spears;
his warriors storm out to scatter us,
gloating as if ready to secretly devour the weak.

I heard, and I trembled within;
my lips quivered at the sound.
Rottenness entered my bones;
I trembled where I stood.
Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress
to come against the people invading us.

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there is no fruit on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,

Yahweh my Lord is my strength;
He makes my feet like those of a deer
and enables me to walk on mountain heights!

For the choir director: on stringed instruments.

I will completely sweep away everything
from the face of the earth—
this is the Lord’s declaration.

Be silent in the presence of the Lord God,
for the Day of the Lord is near.
Indeed, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice;
He has consecrated His guests.

The great Day of the Lord is near,
near and rapidly approaching.
Listen, the Day of the Lord—
then the warrior’s cry is bitter.

That day is a day of wrath,
a day of trouble and distress,
a day of destruction and desolation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness,

Woe, inhabitants of the seacoast,
nation of the Cherethites!
The word of the Lord is against you,
Canaan, land of the Philistines:
I will destroy you until there is no one left.

Therefore, as I live—
this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts,
the God of Israel—
Moab will be like Sodom
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—
a place overgrown with weeds,
a salt pit, and a perpetual wasteland.
The remnant of My people will plunder them;
the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.

This is what they get for their pride,
because they have taunted and acted arrogantly
against the people of the Lord of Hosts.

He will also stretch out His hand against the north
and destroy Assyria;
He will make Nineveh a desolate ruin,
dry as the desert.

This is the self-assured city
that lives in security,
that thinks to herself:
I exist, and there is no one else.
What a desolation she has become,
a place for wild animals to lie down!
Everyone who passes by her
jeers and shakes his fist.

Woe to the city that is rebellious and defiled,
the oppressive city!

The righteous Lord is in her;
He does no wrong.
He applies His justice morning by morning;
He does not fail at dawn,
yet the one who does wrong knows no shame.

Therefore, wait for Me—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
until the day I rise up for plunder.
For My decision is to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms,
in order to pour out My indignation on them,
all My burning anger;
for the whole earth will be consumed
by the fire of My jealousy.

The Lord has removed your punishment;
He has turned back your enemy.
The King of Israel, Yahweh, is among you;
you need no longer fear harm.

Yahweh your God is among you,
a warrior who saves.
He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will bring you quietness with His love.
He will delight in you with shouts of joy.”

“Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”

“You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. “Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Doesn’t it seem like nothing to you?

“This is the promise I made to you when you came out of Egypt, and My Spirit is present among you; don’t be afraid.”

“This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Ask the priests for a ruling.