Now this message from the LORD came to Amittai's son Jonah:

And Jonah riseth to flee to Tarshish from the face of Jehovah, and goeth down to Joppa, and findeth a ship going to Tarshish, and he giveth its fare, and goeth down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the face of Jehovah.

And the seamen will fear, and they will cry each to his God, and they cast down the vessels which were in the ship into the sea to lighten from them. And Jonah went down to the sides of the ship, and he will lie down and snore.

Then they said to him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is thine occupation? And from where do thou come? What is thy country, and of what people are thou?

And the men fear a great fear, and say unto him, 'What is this thou hast done!' for the men have known that from the face of Jehovah he is fleeing, for he hath told them.

And they say unto him, 'What do we do to thee that the sea may cease from us, for the sea is more and more tempestuous?'

And he saith unto them, 'Lift me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea doth cease from you; for I know that on my account this great tempest is upon you.'

And they lift up Jonah, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceaseth from its raging;

And Jonah prayeth unto Jehovah his God from the bowels of the fish.

And he saith: I called, because of my distress, to Jehovah, And He doth answer me, From the belly of sheol I have cried, Thou hast heard my voice.

And I -- I said: I have been cast out from before Thine eyes, (Yet I add to look unto Thy holy temple!)

To the cuttings of mountains I have come down, The earth, her bars are behind me to the age. And Thou bringest up from the pit my life, O Jehovah my God.

When my life was ebbing away from me, I remembered Yahweh, and my prayer came to you, {to your holy temple}.

but as for me, I will sacrifice to You
with a voice of thanksgiving.
I will fulfill what I have vowed.
Salvation is from the Lord!

This message from the LORD came to Jonah a second time:

So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh as the Lord had said. Now Nineveh was a very great town, three days' journey from end to end.

And the men of Nineveh believe in God, and proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even unto their least,

seeing the word doth come unto the king of Nineveh, and he riseth from his throne, and removeth his honourable robe from off him, and spreadeth out sackcloth, and sitteth on the ashes,

And he will cry out and say in Nineveh from the edict of the king and of his great ones, saying, The man and beast, the herd and flock shall not taste of anything; they shall not feed and they shall not drink water.

and cover themselves with sackcloth let man and beast, and let them call unto God mightily, and let them turn back each from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

Who knoweth? He doth turn back, and God hath repented, and hath turned back from the heat of His anger, and we do not perish.'

And God seeth their works, that they have turned back from their evil way, and God repenteth of the evil that He spake of doing to them, and he hath not done it.

And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray you, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and you relent from the destruction.

And now, O Jehovah, take, I pray Thee, my soul from me, for better is my death than my life.'

And Jonah goeth forth from the city, and sitteth on the east of the city, and maketh to himself there a booth, and sitteth under it in the shade, till that he seeth what is in the city.

And Jehovah God appointeth a gourd, and causeth it to come up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head, to give deliverance to him from his affliction, and Jonah rejoiceth because of the gourd with great joy.

And should not I have compassion on Nineveh that great city, wherein there is a multitude of people, even above a hundred thousand that know not their righthand from the left, besides much cattle?"

This message from the LORD came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of the Judean kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah concerning the vision he saw about Samaria and Jerusalem:

Hear, O peoples, all of them! Attend, O earth, and its fulness, And the Lord Jehovah is against you for a witness, The Lord from His holy temple.

For lo, Jehovah is going out from His place, And He hath come down, And hath trodden on high places of earth.

Melted have been the mountains under Him, And the valleys do rend themselves, As wax from the presence of fire, As waters cast down by a slope.

For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. Whence is the transgression of Jacob? is it not from Samaria? And whence are the high places of Judah? are they not from Jerusalem?

And all her graven images are beaten down, And all her gifts are burnt with fire, And all her idols I make a desolation, For, from the hire of a harlot she gathered, and unto the hire of a harlot they return.

Pass over for thee, O inhabitant of Shaphir, Naked one of shame. Not gone out hath the inhabitant of Zaanan, The lamentation of Beth-Ezel doth take from you its standing.

For stayed for good hath the inhabitant of Maroth, For evil hath come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.

Make bald and shave, for thy delightful sons, Enlarge thy baldness as an eagle, For they have removed from thee!

Therefore, thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am devising against this family evil, From which ye do not remove your necks, Nor walk loftily, for a time of evil it is.

In that day shall this term be used, and a mourning shall be made over you on this manner, "We be utterly desolate, the portion of my people is translated. When will he part unto us the land, that he hath taken from us?"

And yesterday My people for an enemy doth raise himself up, From the outer garment the honourable ornament ye strip off, From the confident passers by, Ye who are turning back from war.

The women of My people ye cast out from its delightful house, From its sucklings ye take away My honour to the age.

I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely gather together the remainder of Israel. I will set them like sheep of Bozrah. Like a herd in the midst of their pasture they will be in tumult from people.

Ye who are hating good, and loving evil, Taking violently their skin from off them, And their flesh from off their bones,

And who have eaten the flesh of My people, And their skin from off them have stript, And their bones they have broken, And they have spread them out as in a pot, And as flesh in the midst of a caldron.

Then do they cry unto Jehovah, And He doth not answer them, And hideth His face from them at that time, As they have made evil their doings.

This is what the Lord has said about the prophets by whom my people have been turned from the right way; who, biting with their teeth, say, Peace; and if anyone puts nothing in their mouths they make ready for war against him.

For this, night to you from a vision, and darkness to you from divining; and the sun went down upon the prophets, and the day was dark upon them.

And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.

And gone have many nations and said, Come and we go up to the mount of Jehovah, And unto the house of the God of Jacob, And He doth teach us of His ways, And we do walk in His paths, For from Zion doth go forth a law, And a word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.

And I have set the halting for a remnant, And the far-off for a mighty nation, And reigned hath Jehovah over them in mount Zion, From henceforth, and unto the age.

Be pained, and bring forth, O daughter of Zion, As a travailing woman, For now, thou goest forth from the city, And thou hast dwelt in the field, And thou hast gone unto Babylon, There thou art delivered, There redeem thee doth Jehovah from the hand of thine enemies.

"Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion! For I will give you iron horns; I will give you bronze hooves, and you will crush many nations." You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them, and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler of the whole earth.

And thou, Beth-Lehem Ephratah, Little to be among the chiefs of Judah! From thee to Me he cometh forth -- to be ruler in Israel, And his comings forth are of old, From the days of antiquity.

"Then he will take his stand, shepherding by means of the strength of the LORD, by the power of the name of the LORD his God. And they will be firmly established; indeed, from then on he will become great to the ends of the earth.

And this One shall be peace. When Assyria shall come into our land; and when he shall walk in our palaces, then we shall raise against him seven shepherds and eight anointed ones from men.

And they have afflicted the land of Asshur with the sword, And the land of Nimrod at its openings, And he hath delivered from Asshur when he doth come into our land, And when he treadeth in our borders.

And the remnant of Jacob hath been in the midst of many peoples, As dew from Jehovah -- as showers on the herb, That waiteth not for man, nor stayeth for the sons of men.

Those survivors from Jacob will live among the nations, in the midst of many peoples. They will be like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which attacks when it passes through; it rips its prey and there is no one to stop it.

And it hath come to pass in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah, I have cut off thy horses from thy midst, And I have destroyed thy chariots,

I will remove sorceries from your hands,
and you will not have any more fortune-tellers.

And I will have your images and your pillars cut off from you; and you will no longer give worship to the work of your hands.

I will have your Asherahs pulled up from among you: and I will send destruction on your images.

For I brought thee up from the land of Egypt, And from the house of servants I have ransomed thee, And I send before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

O My people, remember, I pray you, What counsel did Balak king of Moab, What answer him did Balaam son of Beor, (From Shittim unto Gilgal,) In order to know the righteous acts of Jehovah.'

He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what is desired from you by the Lord; only doing what is right, and loving mercy, and walking without pride before your God.

You will plant crops, but will not harvest them; you will squeeze oil from the olives, but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink.

The good man hath perished from the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

Let no man believe his friend, nor put his confidence in a prince. Keep the door of thy mouth, from her that lieth in thy bosom:

and at that time shall they come unto thee, from Assyria unto the strong cities, and from the strong cities unto the river: from the one sea to the other, from the one mountain to the other.

And the land was for a desolation upon its inhabitants from the fruit of their doings.

According to the days of thy departure from the land of Egypt will I show to him marvelous things.

The nations shall see and be ashamed from all their strength: they shall put the hand upon the mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

They lick dust as a serpent, as fearful things of earth, They tremble from their enclosures, Of Jehovah our God they are afraid, Yea, they are afraid of Thee.

Thou givest truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham, That thou hast sworn to our fathers, from the days of antiquity!

A pronouncement about Nineveh: The record of the vision of Nahum from Elkosh.

The mountains quake from Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is lifted up from before Him; even the world and all who dwell in it.

Before the face of his wrath who shall stand? and who will rise up in the burning of his anger? his wrath was poured out as fire, and the rocks were torn down from him.

Whatever [plot] you [Assyrians] devise against the Lord,
He will make a complete end of it;
Affliction [of God’s people by the hand of Assyria] will not occur twice.

Though they be tangled together as thorns, and be as drenched from their drink, they shall be devoured as dry stubble, completely.

From thee hath come forth a deviser of evil Against Jehovah -- a worthless counsellor.

And now I break his rod from off thee, And thy bands I do draw away.

And commanded concerning thee hath Jehovah, 'No more of thy name doth spread abroad, From the house of thy gods I cut off graven and molten image, I appoint thy grave, for thou hast been vile.

In out-places shine do the chariots, They go to and fro in broad places, Their appearances are like torches, As lightnings they run.

And Nineveh is as a pool of waters, From of old it is -- and they are fleeing! 'Stand ye, stand;' and none is turning!

Seize the silver; seize the gold; for there is no end to the treasures; riches from all precious vessels.

Everything has been taken from her, all is gone, she has nothing more: the heart is turned to water, the knees are shaking, all are twisted in pain, and colour has gone from all faces.

Lo, I am against thee, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, And I have burned in smoke its chariot, And thy young lions consume doth a sword, And I have cut off from the land thy prey, And not heard any more is the voice of thy messengers!

Woe to that bloodthirsty city, which is all full of lies and robbery, and will not leave off from ravishing.

From the multitude of the fornications of the fair harlot, the beauty of the mistress of sorceries, selling the nations by her fornication, and families by her sorceries

And it hath come to pass, Each of thy beholders fleeth from thee, And hath said: 'Spoiled is Nineveh, Who doth bemoan for her?' Whence do I seek comforters for thee?

Art thou better than populous No, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters around it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?

Thou too, shalt be drunken, thou shalt hide thyself, - thou too, shalt seek shelter from the foe:

Draw the water of the siege to thee, strengthen thy fortresses go into clay, tread upon the clay, hold fast from the brick.

Watch out! For I am bringing in the Chaldeans, that cruel and impetuous people, who sweep across the earth dispossessing people from homes not their own.

Terrible and fearful it is, From itself its judgment and its excellency go forth.

Swifter than leopards have been its horses, And sharper than evening wolves, And increased have its horsemen, Even its horsemen from afar come in, They fly as an eagle, hasting to consume.

But thou, O LORD my God, my holy one: thou art from the beginning, therefore shall we not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for punishment, and set them to reprove the mighty.

Being pure of eyes from beholding evil, and wilt not be able to look upon labor: wherefore wilt thou look upon the transgressors? wilt thou be silent in the unjust swallowing the just above him?

Therefore, they offer sacrifices to their net
And burn incense to their fishing net;
Because through these things their catch is large and they live luxuriously,
And their food is plentiful.

Look, the one whose desires are not upright will faint from exhaustion, but the person of integrity will live because of his faithfulness.

Will not your creditors suddenly be moved against you, and your troublers get up from their sleep, and you will be to them like goods taken in war?