17 When David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of Yahweh’s covenant is in a tent.”

² Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart; for God is with you.”

³ That same night, the word of God came to Nathan, saying, ⁴ “Go and tell David my servant, ‘Yahweh says, “You shall not build me a house to dwell in; ⁵ for I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tent to another. ⁶ In all places in which I have walked with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”’

⁷ “Now therefore, you shall tell my servant David, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel. ⁸ I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make you a name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth. ⁹ I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more. The children of wickedness will not waste them any more, as at the first, ¹⁰ and from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I tell you that Yahweh will build you a house. ¹¹ It will happen, when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your offspring after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He will build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will not take my loving kindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you; ¹⁴ but I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever. His throne will be established forever.”’” ¹⁵ According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

¹⁶ Then David the king went in, and sat before Yahweh; and he said, “Who am I, Yahweh God, and what is my house, that you have brought me this far? ¹⁷ This was a small thing in your eyes, God; but you have spoken of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have respected me according to the standard of a man of high degree, Yahweh God. ¹⁸ What can David say yet more to you concerning the honor which is done to your servant? For you know your servant. ¹⁹ Yahweh, for your servant’s sake, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, to make known all these great things. ²⁰ Yahweh, there is no one like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²¹ What one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, to make you a name by great and awesome things, in driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeemed out of Egypt? ²² For you made your people Israel your own people forever; and you, Yahweh, became their God. ²³ Now, Yahweh, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as you have spoken. ²⁴ Let your name be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel. The house of David your servant is established before you.’ ²⁵ For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you. ²⁶ Now, Yahweh, you are God, and have promised this good thing to your servant. ²⁷ Now it has pleased you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Yahweh, have blessed, and it is blessed forever.”

4 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? ² You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. ³ You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. ⁴ You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? ⁶ But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”Proverbs 3:34 ⁷ Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹ Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. ¹² Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” ¹⁴ Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

1 Now Yahweh’s^[a] word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”

³ But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. ⁴ But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up. ⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship, and he was laying down, and was fast asleep. ⁶ So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God!^[b] Maybe your God^[c] will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”

⁷ They all said to each other, “Come! Let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ Then they asked him, “Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?”

⁹ He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God^[d] of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them. ¹¹ Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy. ¹² He said to them, “Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.”

¹³ Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. ¹⁴ Therefore they cried to Yahweh, and said, “We beg you, Yahweh, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, Yahweh, have done as it pleased you.” ¹⁵ So they took up Jonah, and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging. ¹⁶ Then the men feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh, and made vows.

¹⁷ Yahweh prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.