7 from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: 8 let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil 9 way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will 10 turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. 4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, 2 when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for T knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great 3 kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I. 4 beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.-Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? 3 5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would 6 become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a 45 gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah 6 was exceeding glad of the gourd. 7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote 8 the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a 7 vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die 9 than to live. And God said to Jonah, 8 Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, 9 I do well to be angry, even unto death. 10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast 10 had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which 11 came up in a night, and 11 perished in a night: and should not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? MICAH. 1 THE word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw conce ning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2 12 HEAR, all ye people; Hearken, O earth, and 18 all that therein is: And let the Lord God be witness against you, The Lord from his holy temple. 3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, And will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, What is the transgression of Jacob?-is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? —are they not Jerusalem? 6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, And as plantings of a vineyard: And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, 7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, He is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 10 Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: In the house of 3 Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 11 Pass ye away, 4 thou 5 inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: The inhabitant of 6 Zaanan came not forth In the mourning of 7 Beth-ezel, he shall receive of you his standing. 12 For the inhabitant of Maroth 8 waited carefully for good: But evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem. 13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: 14 Therefore shalt thou give presents 9 to Moresheth-gath: 15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: 11 He shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel. 16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; For they are gone into captivity from thee. 2 WOE to them that devise iniquity, When the morning is light, they practise it, 2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; 3 And houses, and take them away So they 12 oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, From which ye shall not remove your necks; Neither shall ye go haughtily-for this time is evil. 4 In that day shall one take up a parable against you, And lament 13 with a doleful lamentation, And say, We be utterly spoiled: He hath changed the portion of my people: 14 Turning away he hath divided our fields. 5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot In the congregation of the LORD. 11 Or, The glory of Israel shall come, &c. 12 Or, defraud. 13 Heb. with a lamentation of lamentations. 14 Or, Instead of restoring. 6 12 Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: They shall not prophesy to them, That they shall not take shame. 70 thou that art named the house of Jacob, Is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? 8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: Ye pull off the robe 6 with the garment From them that pass by securely as men averse from war. 9 The 7 women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; From their children have ye taken away my glory for ever. 10 Arise ye, and depart-for this is not your rest: Because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, Even with a sore destruction. 11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, 12 Saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 13 The breaker is come up before them: They have broken up, and have passed through the gate, And their king shall pass before them, And the LORD on the head of them. 3 AND I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, And chop them in pieces, as for the pot, And as flesh within the caldron. 4 Then shall they cry unto the LORD-but he will not hear them: 5 He will even hide his face from them at that time, As they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. Thus saith the LORD, Concerning the prophets that make my people err, That bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; And he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him: 6 Therefore night shall be unto you, 9that ye shall not have a vision; And it shall be dark unto you, 10 that ye shall not divine; And the sun shall go down over the prophets, And the day shall be dark over them. 7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: Yea, they shall all cover their 11 lips-for there is no answer of God. 8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, 9 And of judgment, and of might, To declare unto Jacob his transgression, And to Israel his sin. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, And princes of the house of Israel, 1 Or, Prophesy not as they prophesy. 2 Heb. Drop, &c. 3 Or, shortened? 4 Heb. upright? 5 Heb. yesterday. 7 Or, wives. 8 Or, walk with 9 Heb. from a vision. 10 Heb. from divining. 11 Heb. upper lip. That abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. 10 They build up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity. 11 The heads thereof judge for reward, And the priests thereof teach for hire, And the prophets thereof divine for money: say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. 12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, And Jerusalem shall become heaps, And the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. 4 BUT in the last days it shall come to pass, That the mountain of the house of the LORD And people shall flow unto it. 2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, And to the house of the God of Jacob; And he will teach us of his ways, And we will walk in his paths: For the law shall go forth of Zion, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 3 And he shall judge among many people, And rebuke strong nations afar off; And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war any more. 4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; And none shall make them afraid : For the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it. 5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, 6 And we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. In that day, saith the LORD, Will I assemble her that halteth, And I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; 7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, And her that was cast far off a strong nation: And the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion 8 And thou, O tower of 4 the flock, 9 The strong hold of the daughter of Zion, Unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. NOW why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee? Is thy counsellor perished? For pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. 10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, 11 Like a woman in travail : For now shalt thou go forth out of the city, And thou shalt dwell in the field, And thou shalt go even to Babylon; There shalt thou be delivered; There the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. Now also many nations are gathered against thee, That say, Let her be defiled, 1 Heb. bloods. 2 Heb. saying. 3 Or, scythes. Or, Edar. And let our eye look upon Zion. 12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, Neither understand they his counsel: For he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. 13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: 5 For I will make thine horn iron, And I will make thy hoofs brass : And thou shalt beat in pieces many people: And I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, And their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. He hath laid siege against us: They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. 2 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, 3 Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from 1 everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, Until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. 4 And he shall stand and 2 feed in the strength of the LORD, 5 In the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; And they shall abide : For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. And this man shall be the peace, When the Assyrian shall come into our land : And when he shall tread in our palaces, Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, And eight principal men. 6 And they shall 4 waste the land of Assyria with the sword, 7 And the land of Nimrod 5 in the entrances thereof: Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, When he cometh into our land, And when he treadeth within our borders. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people As a dew from the LORD, As the showers upon the grass, That tarrieth not for man, Nor waiteth for the sons of men. 8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles In the midst of many people As a lion among the beasts of the forest, As a young lion among the flocks of 6 sheep: Who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, 9 Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, 10 And all thine enemies shall be cut off. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, 11 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, And throw down all thy strong holds: 12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; And thou shalt have no more soothsayers: 13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, And thy 7 standing images out of the midst of thee; |