Amos 9:11 - Nahum 3:19

New King James Version

Israel Will Be Restored

¹¹“On^(A) that day I will raise up
The ^[a]tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And ^[b]repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;
¹²^(B)That they may possess the remnant of ^(C)Edom,^[c]
And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,”
Says the Lord who does this thing.

¹³“Behold, ^(D)the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
^(E)The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
¹⁴^(F)I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
^(G)They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
¹⁵I will plant them in their land,
^(H)And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.

The Coming Judgment on Edom

¹The vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God ^(I)concerning Edom
^(J)(We have heard a report from the Lord,
And a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying,
“Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle”):

²“Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You shall be greatly despised.
³The ^(K)pride of your heart has deceived you,
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Whose habitation is high;
^(L)You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
⁴^(M)Though you ascend as high as the eagle,
And though you ^(N)set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down,” says the Lord.

⁵“If ^(O)thieves had come to you,
If robbers by night—
Oh, how you will be cut off!—
Would they not have stolen till they had enough?
If grape-gatherers had come to you,
^(P)Would they not have left some gleanings?

⁶“Oh, how Esau shall be searched out!
How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!
⁷All the men in your confederacy
Shall force you to the border;
^(Q)The men at peace with you
Shall deceive you and prevail against you.
Those who eat your bread shall lay a ^[d]trap for you.
^(R)No^[e] one is aware of it.

⁸“Will^(S) I not in that day,” says the Lord,
“Even destroy the wise men from Edom,
And understanding from the mountains of Esau?
⁹Then your ^(T)mighty men, O ^(U)Teman, shall be dismayed,
To the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau
May be cut off by slaughter.

Edom Mistreated His Brother

¹⁰“For ^(V)violence against your brother Jacob,
Shame shall cover you,
And ^(W)you shall be cut off forever.
¹¹In the day that you ^(X)stood on the other side—
In the day that strangers carried captive his forces,
When foreigners entered his gates
And ^(Y)cast lots for Jerusalem—
Even you were as one of them.

¹²“But you should not have ^(Z)gazed^[f] on the day of your brother
^[g]In the day of his captivity;
Nor should you have ^(AA)rejoiced over the children of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Nor should you have spoken proudly
In the day of distress.
¹³You should not have entered the gate of My people
In the day of their calamity.
Indeed, you should not have ^[h]gazed on their affliction
In the day of their calamity,
Nor laid hands on their substance
In the day of their calamity.
¹⁴You should not have stood at the crossroads
To cut off those among them who escaped;
Nor should you have ^[i]delivered up those among them who remained
In the day of distress.

¹⁵“For^(AB) the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near;
^(AC)As you have done, it shall be done to you;
Your ^[j]reprisal shall return upon your own head.
¹⁶^(AD)For as you drank on My holy mountain,
So shall all the nations drink continually;
Yes, they shall drink, and swallow,
And they shall be as though they had never been.

Israel’s Final Triumph

¹⁷“But on Mount Zion there ^(AE)shall be ^[k]deliverance,
And there shall be holiness;
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
¹⁸The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
And the house of Joseph ^(AF)a flame;
But the house of Esau shall be stubble;
They shall kindle them and devour them,
And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,”
For the Lord has spoken.

¹⁹The ^[l]South ^(AG)shall possess the mountains of Esau,
^(AH)And the Lowland shall possess Philistia.
They shall possess the fields of Ephraim
And the fields of Samaria.
Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
²⁰And the captives of this host of the children of Israel
Shall possess the land of the Canaanites
As ^(AI)far as Zarephath.
The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
^(AJ)Shall possess the cities of the ^[m]South.
²¹Then ^(AK)saviors^[n] shall come to Mount Zion
To judge the mountains of Esau,
And the ^(AL)kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

Jonah’s Disobedience

1 Now the word of the Lord came to ^(AM)Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ²“Arise, go to ^(AN)Nineveh, that ^(AO)great city, and cry out against it; for ^(AP)their wickedness has come up before Me.” ³But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to ^(AQ)Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to ^(AR)Tarshish ^(AS)from the presence of the Lord.

The Storm at Sea

⁴But ^(AT)the Lord ^[o]sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.

⁵Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten ^[p]the load. But Jonah had gone down ^(AU)into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.

⁶So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, ^(AV)call on your God; ^(AW)perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”

⁷And they said to one another, “Come, let us ^(AX)cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸Then they said to him, ^(AY)“Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”

⁹So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear ^[q]the Lord, the God of heaven, ^(AZ)who made the sea and the dry land.”

Jonah Thrown into the Sea

¹⁰Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. ¹¹Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.

¹²And he said to them, ^(BA)“Pick me up and ^[r]throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”

¹³Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, ^(BB)but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. ¹⁴Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and ^(BC)do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, ^(BD)have done as it pleased You.” ¹⁵So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, ^(BE)and the sea ceased from its raging. ¹⁶Then the men ^(BF)feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows.

Jonah’s Prayer and Deliverance

¹⁷Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And ^(BG)Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah’s Prayer and God’s Answer

2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. ²And he said:

“I ^(BH)cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
^(BI)And He answered me.

“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
And You heard my voice.
³^(BJ)For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me;
^(BK)All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
⁴^(BL)Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again ^(BM)toward Your holy temple.’
⁵The ^(BN)waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
⁶I went down to the ^[s]moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my ^(BO)life from the pit,
O Lord, my God.

⁷“When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
^(BP)And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.

⁸“Those who regard ^(BQ)worthless idols
Forsake their own ^[t]Mercy.
⁹But I will ^(BR)sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have ^(BS)vowed.
^(BT)Salvation is of the ^(BU)Lord.”

¹⁰So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Jonah Preaches at Nineveh

3 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ²“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” ³So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, ^[u]a three-day journey in extent. ⁴And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then ^(BV)he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

The People of Nineveh Believe

⁵So the ^(BW)people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ⁶Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth ^(BX)and sat in ashes. ⁷^(BY)And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his ^[v]nobles, saying,

Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. ⁸But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, ^(BZ)let every one turn from his evil way and from ^(CA)the violence that is in his hands. ⁹^(CB)Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

¹⁰^(CC)Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

Jonah’s Anger and God’s Kindness

4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. ²So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I ^(CD)fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a ^(CE)gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. ³^(CF)Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for ^(CG)it is better for me to die than to live!”

⁴Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. ⁶And the Lord God prepared a ^[w]plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah ^[x]was very grateful for the plant. ⁷But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. ⁸And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, ^(CH)“It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!”

¹⁰But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which ^[y]came up in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹And should I not pity Nineveh, ^(CI)that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons ^(CJ)who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”

Judgment on Israel and Judah

1 The word of the Lord that came to ^(CK)Micah of Moresheth in the days of ^(CL)Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Judgment on Israel

²Hear, all you peoples!
Listen, O earth, and all that is in it!
Let the Lord God be a witness against you,
The Lord from ^(CM)His holy temple.

³For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place;
He will come down
And tread on the high places of the earth.
⁴^(CN)The mountains will melt under Him,
And the valleys will split
Like wax before the fire,
Like waters poured down a steep place.
⁵All 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?
And what are the ^(CO)high places of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?

⁶“Therefore I will make Samaria ^(CP)a heap of ruins in the field,
Places for planting a vineyard;
I will pour down her stones into the valley,
And I will ^(CQ)uncover her foundations.
⁷All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
And all her ^(CR)pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire;
All her idols I will lay desolate,
For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot,
And they shall return to the ^(CS)pay of a harlot.”

Mourning for Israel and Judah

⁸Therefore I will wail and howl,
I will go stripped and naked;
^(CT)I will make a wailing like the jackals
And a mourning like the ostriches,
⁹For her wounds are incurable.
For ^(CU)it has come to Judah;
It has come to the gate of My people—
To Jerusalem.

¹⁰^(CV)Tell it not in Gath,
Weep not at all;
In ^[z]Beth Aphrah
Roll yourself in the dust.
¹¹Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of ^[aa]Shaphir;
The inhabitant of ^[ab]Zaanan does not go out.
Beth Ezel mourns;
Its place to stand is taken away from you.

¹²For the inhabitant of ^[ac]Maroth ^[ad]pined for good,
But ^(CW)disaster came down from the Lord
To the gate of Jerusalem.
¹³O inhabitant of ^(CX)Lachish,
Harness the chariot to the swift steeds
(She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion),
For the transgressions of Israel were ^(CY)found in you.

¹⁴Therefore you shall ^(CZ)give presents to ^[ae]Moresheth Gath;
The houses of ^(DA)Achzib^[af] shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
¹⁵I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of ^(DB)Mareshah;^[ag]
The glory of Israel shall come to ^(DC)Adullam.^[ah]
¹⁶Make yourself ^(DD)bald and cut off your hair,
Because of your ^(DE)precious children;
Enlarge your baldness like an eagle,
For they shall go from you into ^(DF)captivity.

Woe to Evildoers

2 Woe to those who devise iniquity,
And ^[ai]work out evil on their beds!
At ^(DG)morning light they practice it,
Because it is in the power of their hand.
²They ^(DH)covet fields and take them by violence,
Also houses, and seize them.
So they oppress a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.

³Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, against this ^(DI)family I am devising ^(DJ)disaster,
From which you cannot remove your necks;
Nor shall you walk haughtily,
For this is an evil time.
⁴In that day one shall take up a proverb against you,
And ^(DK)lament with a bitter lamentation, saying:
‘We are utterly destroyed!
He has changed the ^[aj]heritage of my people;
How He has removed it from me!
To ^[ak]a turncoat He has divided our fields.’ ”

⁵Therefore you will have no ^[al]one to determine boundaries by lot
In the assembly of the Lord.

Lying Prophets

⁶“Do not prattle,” you say to those who ^[am]prophesy.
So they shall not prophesy ^[an]to you;
^[ao]They shall not return insult for insult.
⁷You who are named the house of Jacob:
“Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted?
Are these His doings?
Do not My words do good
To him who walks uprightly?

⁸“Lately My people have risen up as an enemy—
You pull off the robe with the garment
From those who trust you, as they pass by,
Like men returned from war.
⁹The women of My people you cast out
From their pleasant houses;
From their children
You have taken away My glory forever.

¹⁰“Arise and depart,
For this is not your ^(DL)rest;
Because it is ^(DM)defiled, it shall destroy,
Yes, with utter destruction.
¹¹If a man should walk in a false spirit
And speak a lie, saying,
‘I will ^[ap]prophesy to you ^[aq]of wine and drink,’
Even he would be the ^(DN)prattler of this people.

Israel Restored

¹²“I^(DO) will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob,
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
I will put them together ^(DP)like sheep of ^[ar]the fold,
Like a flock in the midst of their pasture;
^(DQ)They shall make a loud noise because of so many people.
¹³The one who breaks open will come up before them;
They will break out,
Pass through the gate,
And go out by it;
^(DR)Their king will pass before them,
^(DS)With the Lord at their head.”

Wicked Rulers and Prophets

3 And I said:

“Hear now, O heads of Jacob,
And you ^(DT)rulers of the house of Israel:
^(DU)Is it not for you to know justice?
²You who hate good and love evil;
Who strip the skin from ^[as]My people,
And the flesh from their bones;
³Who also ^(DV)eat the flesh of My people,
Flay their skin from them,
Break their bones,
And chop them in pieces
Like meat for the pot,
^(DW)Like flesh in the caldron.”

⁴Then ^(DX)they will cry to the Lord,
But He will not hear them;
He will even hide His face from them at that time,
Because they have been evil in their deeds.

⁵Thus says the Lord ^(DY)concerning the prophets
Who make my people stray;
Who chant ^[at]“Peace”
^[au]While they ^(DZ)chew with their teeth,
But who prepare war against him
^(EA)Who puts nothing into their mouths:
⁶“Therefore^(EB) you shall have night without ^[av]vision,
And you shall have darkness without divination;
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
And the day shall be dark for ^(EC)them.
⁷So the seers shall be ashamed,
And the diviners abashed;
Indeed they shall all cover their lips;
^(ED)For there is no answer from God.”

⁸But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,
And of justice and might,
^(EE)To declare to Jacob his transgression
And to Israel his sin.
⁹Now hear this,
You heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who abhor justice
And ^[aw]pervert all equity,
¹⁰^(EF)Who build up Zion with ^(EG)bloodshed
And Jerusalem with iniquity:
¹¹^(EH)Her heads judge for a bribe,
^(EI)Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for ^[ax]money.
^(EJ)Yet they lean on the Lord, and say,
“Is not the Lord among us?
No harm can come upon us.”
¹²Therefore because of you
Zion shall be ^(EK)plowed like a field,
^(EL)Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And ^(EM)the mountain of the ^[ay]temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.

The Lord’s Reign in Zion^(EN)

4 Now ^(EO)it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And peoples shall flow to it.
²Many nations shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion the law shall go forth,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
³He shall judge between many peoples,
And rebuke strong nations afar off;
They shall beat their swords into ^(EP)plowshares,
And their spears into ^[az]pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
^(EQ)Neither shall they learn war anymore.

⁴^(ER)But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree,
And no one shall make them afraid;
For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
⁵For all people walk each in the name of his god,
But ^(ES)we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
Forever and ever.

Zion’s Future Triumph

⁶“In that day,” says the Lord,
^(ET)“I will assemble the lame,
^(EU)I will gather the outcast
And those whom I have afflicted;
⁷I will make the lame ^(EV)a remnant,
And the outcast a strong nation;
So the Lord ^(EW)will reign over them in Mount Zion
From now on, even forever.
⁸And you, O tower of the flock,
The stronghold of the daughter of Zion,
To you shall it come,
Even the former dominion shall come,
The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”

⁹Now why do you cry aloud?
^(EX)Is there no king in your midst?
Has your counselor perished?
For ^(EY)pangs have seized you like a woman in ^[ba]labor.
¹⁰Be in pain, and labor to bring forth,
O daughter of Zion,
Like a woman in birth pangs.
For now you shall go forth from the city,
You shall dwell in the field,
And to ^(EZ)Babylon you shall go.
There you shall be delivered;
There the ^(FA)Lord will ^(FB)redeem you
From the hand of your enemies.

¹¹^(FC)Now also many nations have gathered against you,
Who say, “Let her be defiled,
And let our eye ^(FD)look upon Zion.”
¹²But they do not know ^(FE)the thoughts of the Lord,
Nor do they understand His counsel;
For He will gather them ^(FF)like sheaves to the threshing floor.

¹³“Arise^(FG) and ^(FH)thresh, O daughter of Zion;
For I will make your horn iron,
And I will make your hooves bronze;
You shall ^(FI)beat in pieces many peoples;
^(FJ)I will consecrate their gain to the Lord,
And their substance to ^(FK)the Lord of the whole earth.”

The Messiah Will Be Born at Bethlehem

5 Now gather yourself in troops,
O daughter of troops;
He has laid siege against us;
They will ^(FL)strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

The Coming Messiah

²“But you, ^(FM)Bethlehem ^(FN)Ephrathah,
Though you are little ^(FO)among the ^(FP)thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be ^(FQ)Ruler in Israel,
^(FR)Whose goings forth are from of old,
From ^[bb]everlasting.”

³Therefore He shall give them up,
Until the time that ^(FS)she who is in labor has given birth;
Then ^(FT)the remnant of His brethren
Shall return to the children of Israel.
⁴And He shall stand and ^(FU)feed^[bc] His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God;
And they shall abide,
For now He ^(FV)shall be great
To the ends of the earth;
⁵And this One ^(FW)shall be peace.

Judgment on Israel’s Enemies

When the Assyrian comes into our land,
And when he treads in our palaces,
Then we will raise against him
Seven shepherds and eight princely men.
⁶They shall ^[bd]waste with the sword the land of Assyria,
And the land of ^(FX)Nimrod at its entrances;
Thus He shall ^(FY)deliver us from the Assyrian,
When he comes into our land
And when he treads within our borders.

⁷Then ^(FZ)the remnant of Jacob
Shall be in the midst of many peoples,
^(GA)Like dew from the Lord,
Like showers on the grass,
That ^[be]tarry for no man
Nor ^[bf]wait for the sons of men.
⁸And the remnant of Jacob
Shall be among the Gentiles,
In the midst of many peoples,
Like a ^(GB)lion among the beasts of the forest,
Like a young lion among flocks of sheep,
Who, if he passes through,
Both treads down and tears in pieces,
And none can deliver.
⁹Your hand shall be lifted against your adversaries,
And all your enemies shall be ^[bg]cut off.

¹⁰“And it shall be in that day,” says the Lord,
“That I will ^(GC)cut^[bh] off your ^(GD)horses from your midst
And destroy your ^(GE)chariots.
¹¹I will cut off the cities of your land
And throw down all your strongholds.
¹²I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
And you shall have no ^(GF)soothsayers.
¹³^(GG)Your carved images I will also cut off,
And your sacred pillars from your midst;
You shall ^(GH)no more worship the work of your hands;
¹⁴I will pluck your ^[bi]wooden images from your midst;
Thus I will destroy your cities.
¹⁵And I will ^(GI)execute vengeance in anger and fury
On the nations that have not ^[bj]heard.”

God Pleads with Israel

6 Hear now what the Lord says:

“Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
And let the hills hear your voice.
²^(GJ)Hear, O you mountains, ^(GK)the Lord’s complaint,
And you strong foundations of the earth;
For ^(GL)the Lord has a complaint against His people,
And He will ^[bk]contend with Israel.

³“O My people, what ^(GM)have I done to you?
And how have I ^(GN)wearied you?
Testify against Me.
⁴^(GO)For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
I redeemed you from the house of bondage;
And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
⁵O My people, remember now
What ^(GP)Balak king of Moab counseled,
And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
From ^[bl]Acacia Grove to Gilgal,
That you may know ^(GQ)the righteousness of the Lord.”

⁶With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
⁷^(GR)Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand ^(GS)rivers of oil?
^(GT)Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
^[bm]The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸He has ^(GU)shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But ^(GV)to do justly,
To love ^[bn]mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

Punishment of Israel’s Injustice

⁹The Lord’s voice cries to the city—
Wisdom shall see Your name:

“Hear the rod!
Who has appointed it?
¹⁰Are there yet the treasures of wickedness
In the house of the wicked,
And the short measure that is an abomination?
¹¹Shall I count pure those with ^(GW)the wicked scales,
And with the bag of deceitful weights?
¹²For her rich men are full of ^(GX)violence,
Her inhabitants have spoken lies,
And ^(GY)their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹³“Therefore I will also ^(GZ)make you sick by striking you,
By making you desolate because of your sins.
¹⁴^(HA)You shall eat, but not be satisfied;
^[bo]Hunger shall be in your midst.
You may carry some away,^[bp] but shall not save them;
And what you do rescue I will give over to the sword.

¹⁵“You shall ^(HB)sow, but not reap;
You shall tread the olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
And make sweet wine, but not drink wine.
¹⁶For the statutes of ^(HC)Omri are ^(HD)kept;
All the works of Ahab’s house are done;
And you walk in their counsels,
That I may make you a ^[bq]desolation,
And your inhabitants a hissing.
Therefore you shall bear the ^(HE)reproach of ^[br]My people.”

Sorrow for Israel’s Sins

7 Woe is me!
For I am like those who gather summer fruits,
Like those who ^(HF)glean vintage grapes;
There is no cluster to eat
Of the first-ripe fruit which ^(HG)my soul desires.
²The ^(HH)faithful^[bs] man has perished from the earth,
And there is no one upright among men.
They all lie in wait for blood;
^(HI)Every man hunts his brother with a net.

³That they may successfully do evil with both hands—
The prince asks for gifts,
The judge seeks a ^(HJ)bribe,
And the great man utters his evil desire;
So they scheme together.
⁴The best of them is ^(HK)like a brier;
The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge;
The day of your watchman and your punishment comes;
Now shall be their perplexity.

⁵^(HL)Do not trust in a friend;
Do not put your confidence in a companion;
Guard the doors of your mouth
From her who lies in your ^(HM)bosom.
⁶For ^(HN)son dishonors father,
Daughter rises against her mother,
Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
⁷Therefore I will look to the Lord;
I will ^(HO)wait for the God of my salvation;
My God will hear me.

Israel’s Confession and Comfort

⁸^(HP)Do not rejoice over me, my enemy;
^(HQ)When I fall, I will arise;
When I sit in darkness,
The Lord will be a light to me.
⁹^(HR)I will bear the indignation of the Lord,
Because I have sinned against Him,
Until He pleads my ^(HS)case
And executes justice for me.
He will bring me forth to the light;
I will see His righteousness.
¹⁰Then she who is my enemy will see,
And ^(HT)shame will cover her who said to me,
^(HU)“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will see her;
Now she will be trampled down
Like mud in the streets.

¹¹In the day when your ^(HV)walls are to be built,
In that day ^[bt]the decree shall go far and wide.
¹²In that day ^(HW)they^[bu] shall come to you
From Assyria and the ^[bv]fortified cities,
From the ^[bw]fortress to ^[bx]the River,
From sea to sea,
And mountain to mountain.
¹³Yet the land shall be desolate
Because of those who dwell in it,
And ^(HX)for the fruit of their deeds.

God Will Forgive Israel

¹⁴Shepherd Your people with Your staff,
The flock of Your heritage,
Who dwell ^[by]solitarily in a ^(HY)woodland,
In the midst of Carmel;
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead,
As in days of old.

¹⁵“As^(HZ) in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show ^[bz]them ^(IA)wonders.”

¹⁶The nations ^(IB)shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
^(IC)They shall put their hand over their mouth;
Their ears shall be deaf.
¹⁷They shall lick the ^(ID)dust like a serpent;
^(IE)They shall crawl from their holes like ^[ca]snakes of the earth.
^(IF)They shall be afraid of the Lord our God,
And shall fear because of You.
¹⁸^(IG)Who is a God like You,
^(IH)Pardoning iniquity
And passing over the transgression of ^(II)the remnant of His heritage?

^(IJ)He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in ^(IK)mercy.^[cb]
¹⁹He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities.

You will cast all ^[cc]our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
²⁰^(IL)You will give truth to Jacob
And ^[cd]mercy to Abraham,
^(IM)Which You have sworn to our fathers
From days of old.

God’s Mercy and Judgment

1 The ^[ce]burden ^(IN)against Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

God’s Wrath on His Enemies

²God is ^(IO)jealous, and the Lord avenges;
The Lord avenges and is furious.
The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies;
³The Lord is ^(IP)slow to anger and ^(IQ)great in power,
And will not at all acquit the wicked.

^(IR)The Lord has His way
In the whirlwind and in the storm,
And the clouds are the dust of His feet.
⁴^(IS)He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,
And dries up all the rivers.
^(IT)Bashan and Carmel wither,
And the flower of Lebanon wilts.
⁵The mountains quake before Him,
The hills melt,
And the earth ^[cf]heaves at His presence,
Yes, the world and all who dwell in it.

⁶Who can stand before His indignation?
And ^(IU)who can endure the fierceness of His anger?
His fury is poured out like fire,
And the rocks are thrown down by Him.

⁷^(IV)The Lord is good,
A stronghold in the day of trouble;
And ^(IW)He knows those who trust in Him.
⁸But with an overflowing flood
He will make an utter end of its place,
And darkness will pursue His enemies.

⁹^(IX)What do you ^[cg]conspire against the Lord?
^(IY)He will make an utter end of it.
Affliction will not rise up a second time.
¹⁰For while tangled ^(IZ)like thorns,
^(JA)And while drunken like drunkards,
^(JB)They shall be devoured like stubble fully dried.
¹¹From you comes forth one
Who plots evil against the Lord,
A ^[ch]wicked counselor.

¹²Thus says the Lord:

“Though they are ^[ci]safe, and likewise many,
Yet in this manner they will be ^(JC)cut down
When he passes through.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more;
¹³For now I will break off his yoke from you,
And burst your bonds apart.”

¹⁴The Lord has given a command concerning you:
^[cj]“Your name shall be perpetuated no longer.
Out of the house of your gods
I will cut off the carved image and the molded image.
I will dig your ^(JD)grave,
For you are ^(JE)vile.”^[ck]

¹⁵Behold, on the mountains
The ^(JF)feet of him who brings good tidings,
Who proclaims peace!
O Judah, keep your appointed feasts,
Perform your vows.
For the ^[cl]wicked one shall no more pass through you;
He is ^(JG)utterly cut off.

The Destruction of Nineveh

2 He^[cm] who scatters has come up before your face.
Man the fort!
Watch the road!
Strengthen your flanks!
Fortify your power mightily.

²For the Lord will restore the excellence of Jacob
Like the excellence of Israel,
For the emptiers have emptied them out
And ruined their vine branches.

³The shields of his mighty men are made red,
The valiant men are in scarlet.
The chariots come with flaming torches
In the day of his preparation,
And ^[cn]the spears are brandished.
⁴The chariots rage in the streets,
They jostle one another in the broad roads;
They seem like torches,
They run like lightning.

⁵He remembers his nobles;
They stumble in their walk;
They make haste to her walls,
And the defense is prepared.
⁶The gates of the rivers are opened,
And the palace is dissolved.
⁷^[co]It is decreed:
She shall be led away captive,
She shall be brought up;
And her maidservants shall lead her as with the voice of doves,
Beating their breasts.

⁸Though Nineveh of old was like a pool of water,
Now they flee away.
^[cp]“Halt! Halt!” they cry;
But no one turns back.
⁹^[cq]Take spoil of silver!
Take spoil of ^(JH)gold!
There is no end of treasure,
Or wealth of every desirable prize.
¹⁰She is empty, desolate, and waste!
The heart melts, and the knees shake;
Much pain is in every side,
And all their faces ^[cr]are drained of color.

¹¹Where is the dwelling of the ^(JI)lions,
And the feeding place of the young lions,
Where the lion walked, the lioness and lion’s cub,
And no one made them afraid?
¹²The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs,
^[cs]Killed for his lionesses,
^(JJ)Filled his caves with prey,
And his dens with ^[ct]flesh.

¹³“Behold, ^(JK)I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts, “I will burn ^[cu]your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your ^(JL)messengers shall be heard no more.”

The Woe of Nineveh

3 Woe to the ^(JM)bloody city!
It is all full of lies and robbery.
Its ^[cv]victim never departs.
²The noise of a whip
And the noise of rattling wheels,
Of galloping horses,
Of ^[cw]clattering chariots!
³Horsemen charge with bright sword and glittering spear.
There is a multitude of slain,
A great number of bodies,
Countless corpses—
They stumble over the corpses—
⁴Because of the multitude of ^[cx]harlotries of the ^[cy]seductive harlot,
^(JN)The mistress of sorceries,
Who sells nations through her harlotries,
And families through her sorceries.

⁵“Behold, I am ^(JO)against you,” says the Lord of hosts;
^(JP)“I will lift your skirts over your face,
I will show the nations your nakedness,
And the kingdoms your shame.
⁶I will cast abominable filth upon you,
Make you ^(JQ)vile,^[cz]
And make you ^(JR)a spectacle.
⁷It shall come to pass that all who look upon you
^(JS)Will flee from you, and say,
^(JT)‘Nineveh is laid waste!
^(JU)Who will bemoan her?’
Where shall I seek comforters for you?”

⁸^(JV)Are you better than ^(JW)No^[da] Amon
That was situated by the ^[db]River,
That had the waters around her,
Whose rampart was the sea,
Whose wall was the sea?
⁹Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength,
And it was boundless;
^(JX)Put and Lubim were ^[dc]your helpers.
¹⁰Yet she was carried away,
She went into captivity;
^(JY)Her young children also were dashed to pieces
^(JZ)At the head of every street;
They ^(KA)cast lots for her honorable men,
And all her great men were bound in chains.
¹¹You also will be ^(KB)drunk;
You will be hidden;
You also will seek refuge from the enemy.

¹²All your strongholds are ^(KC)fig trees with ripened figs:
If they are shaken,
They fall into the mouth of the eater.
¹³Surely, ^(KD)your people in your midst are women!
The gates of your land are wide open for your enemies;
Fire shall devour the ^(KE)bars of your gates.

¹⁴Draw your water for the siege!
^(KF)Fortify your strongholds!
Go into the clay and tread the mortar!
Make strong the brick kiln!
¹⁵There the fire will devour you,
The sword will cut you off;
It will eat you up like a ^(KG)locust.

Make yourself many—like the locust!
Make yourself many—like the swarming locusts!
¹⁶You have multiplied your ^(KH)merchants more than the stars of heaven.
The locust plunders and flies away.
¹⁷^(KI)Your commanders are like swarming locusts,
And your generals like great grasshoppers,
Which camp in the hedges on a cold day;
When the sun rises they flee away,
And the place where they are is not known.

¹⁸^(KJ)Your shepherds slumber, O ^(KK)king of Assyria;
Your nobles rest in the dust.
Your people are ^(KL)scattered on the mountains,
And no one gathers them.
¹⁹Your injury has no healing,
^(KM)Your wound is severe.
^(KN)All who hear news of you
Will clap their hands over you,
For upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?

Footnotes

Amos 9:11 Lit. booth; a figure of a deposed dynasty
Amos 9:11 Lit. wall up its breaches
Amos 9:12 LXX mankind
Obadiah 1:7 Or wound or plot
Obadiah 1:7 Or There is no understanding in him
Obadiah 1:12 Gloated over
Obadiah 1:12 Lit. On the day he became a foreigner
Obadiah 1:13 Gloated over
Obadiah 1:14 Handed over to the enemy
Obadiah 1:15 Or reward
Obadiah 1:17 Or salvation
Obadiah 1:19 Heb. Negev
Obadiah 1:20 Heb. Negev
Obadiah 1:21 deliverers
Jonah 1:4 Lit. hurled
Jonah 1:5 Lit. from upon them
Jonah 1:9 Heb. YHWH
Jonah 1:12 Lit. hurl
Jonah 2:6 foundations or bases
Jonah 2:8 Or Lovingkindness
Jonah 3:3 Exact meaning unknown
Jonah 3:7 Lit. great ones
Jonah 4:6 Heb. kikayon, exact identity unknown
Jonah 4:6 Lit. rejoiced with great joy
Jonah 4:10 Lit. was a son of a night
Micah 1:10 Lit. House of Dust
Micah 1:11 Lit. Beautiful
Micah 1:11 Lit. Going Out
Micah 1:12 Lit. Bitterness
Micah 1:12 Lit. was sick
Micah 1:14 Lit. Possession of Gath
Micah 1:14 Lit. Lie
Micah 1:15 Lit. Inheritance
Micah 1:15 Lit. Refuge
Micah 2:1 Plan
Micah 2:4 Lit. portion
Micah 2:4 Lit. one turning back, an apostate
Micah 2:5 Lit. one casting a surveyor’s line
Micah 2:6 Or preach, lit. drip words
Micah 2:6 Lit. to these
Micah 2:6 Vg. He shall not take shame
Micah 2:11 Or preach, lit. drip
Micah 2:11 concerning
Micah 2:12 Heb. Bozrah
Micah 3:2 Lit. them
Micah 3:5 All is well
Micah 3:5 For those who feed them
Micah 3:6 Prophetic revelation
Micah 3:9 Lit. twist
Micah 3:11 Lit. silver
Micah 3:12 Lit. house
Micah 4:3 pruning knives
Micah 4:9 childbirth
Micah 5:2 Lit. the days of eternity
Micah 5:4 shepherd
Micah 5:6 devastate
Micah 5:7 wait
Micah 5:7 delay
Micah 5:9 destroyed
Micah 5:10 destroy
Micah 5:14 Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities
Micah 5:15 obeyed
Micah 6:2 bring charges against
Micah 6:5 Heb. Shittim, Num. 25:1; Josh. 2:1; 3:1
Micah 6:7 My own child
Micah 6:8 Or lovingkindness
Micah 6:14 Or Emptiness or Humiliation
Micah 6:14 Tg., Vg. You shall take hold
Micah 6:16 Or object of horror
Micah 6:16 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX nations
Micah 7:2 Or loyal
Micah 7:11 Or the boundary shall be extended
Micah 7:12 Lit. he, collective of the captives
Micah 7:12 Heb. arey mazor, possibly cities of Egypt
Micah 7:12 Heb. mazor, possibly Egypt
Micah 7:12 The Euphrates
Micah 7:14 Alone
Micah 7:15 Lit. him, collective for the captives
Micah 7:17 Lit. crawlers
Micah 7:18 Or lovingkindness
Micah 7:19 Lit. their
Micah 7:20 Or lovingkindness
Nahum 1:1 oracle, prophecy
Nahum 1:5 Tg. burns
Nahum 1:9 Or devise
Nahum 1:11 Lit. counselor of Belial
Nahum 1:12 Or at peace or complete
Nahum 1:14 Lit. No more of your name shall be fruitful
Nahum 1:14 Or contemptible
Nahum 1:15 Lit. one of Belial
Nahum 2:1 Vg. He who destroys
Nahum 2:3 Lit. the cypresses are shaken; LXX, Syr. the horses rush about; Vg. the drivers are stupefied
Nahum 2:7 Heb. Huzzab
Nahum 2:8 Lit. Stand
Nahum 2:9 Plunder
Nahum 2:10 LXX, Tg., Vg. gather blackness; Joel 2:6
Nahum 2:12 Lit. Strangled
Nahum 2:12 Torn flesh
Nahum 2:13 Lit. her
Nahum 3:1 Lit. prey
Nahum 3:2 bounding or jolting
Nahum 3:4 Spiritual unfaithfulness
Nahum 3:4 Lit. goodly charm, in a bad sense
Nahum 3:6 despicable
Nahum 3:8 Ancient Thebes; Tg., Vg. populous Alexandria
Nahum 3:8 Lit. rivers, the Nile and the surrounding canals
Nahum 3:9 LXX her