Bible in 90 Days
The Israelites will be strong again
11 The Lord says, ‘When that time comes, I will make David's kingdom strong again. It has become like a broken hut, but I will repair it. I will cause it to become as good and strong as it was when king David ruled. 12 You Israelites will fight the Edomites who still remain. You will win against them and the other nations that once belonged to me.’
That is what the Lord says, and he will do it.
13 The Lord says, ‘The time will come when food will grow very well in your fields. People will need to work quickly to cut down all their crops before they plough the ground to plant again. Lots of grapes will grow on your vines. People will work quickly to make wine from the grapes before they plant new vines. So much juice will pour out of the grapes that it will run down the hills!
14 I will bring the people of Israel, my people, back to their own land. Enemies destroyed their cities, but now my people will build them again. They will live safely in them. My people will plant vines. They will drink wine from their grapes. They will eat the fruit from trees that they have planted in their gardens. 15 And I will plant my people in their own land. That is the land that I have given to them, and nobody will ever pull them out of that land.’
That is what the Lord your God says.
God will punish Edom's people
1 This is the vision that Obadiah saw.
The Almighty Lord says this about Edom.[a]
We have heard a message from the Lord.
Someone has taken a message to the nations to say,
‘Stand up and fight against Edom.’
2 The Lord says to Edom,
‘I will make you small among other people.
They will think that you are not worth anything.
3 You think that you are better than other people. And so you believe something that is not true.
You live in a place that is difficult to reach.
Your home is high up in a place among rocks.
You say to yourself,
“Nobody can reach us up here.”
4 You may be like a strong bird that flies high.
And you may make your home in the highest places among the stars.
But I will bring you down from there.’
That is what the Lord says.
5 He says,
‘Men might come in the night
to take away what is yours.
(Oh! What a very bad thing will happen to you!)
But they would not take everything.
If people came to take fruit from your trees,
they would leave some fruit on the tree.
6 But people will take everything from Esau's people (also called Edom).
They will even take the valuable things that you hide.
7 People who have helped you to fight
will push you out from your country.
They will tell you what is not true. You will believe them.
They will be stronger than you
because you will believe their words.
They will make a trap for you.’
8 The Lord says,
‘Some men in Edom know what is right.[b] But, at that time, I will kill them.
Some men in the mountains know what is good. (These are the mountains where Esau's people live.) But I will kill those men.
9 There are men from Teman city that fight. But I will make them afraid.
Esau's people live in the mountains. And everyone there will die.
10 This will happen because you were cruel to your brother Jacob (the people in Israel).
God will make you ashamed because of this and you will die.
11 Men from other countries came into Jerusalem. They took away all the good things from Jerusalem. They played a game for the best things. You were as bad as they were. You did not help the Israelites.
12 Your brothers in Judah were in great trouble.
You thought that you were better than they. But you were wrong to think that.
You should not have been happy when the people in Judah were dying.
You should not have been happy when they were in trouble.
13 You should not have walked like soldiers through my people's gates.
You did that at the time when they were in trouble.
You should not have thought that you were better than they.
You thought it at the time when they were in trouble.
You should not have taken what belonged to them.
14 You waited at the place where the roads joined each other.
You wanted to kill those that ran away from the enemy.
That is why you waited there.
You should not have done that.
Some Israelites were still alive, but they were in trouble.
You should not have taken them to the enemy.
The day of the Lord
15 The day of the Lord will come soon for all the world's people.[c]
God will do to you what you did to other people.
God will be angry with you because you did those things to them.
16 You drank on my special hill.[d]
In the same way, people from all countries will drink and they will not stop.
They will drink until God has killed them.[e]
17 But on Mount Zion, people will be free.
It will be special to me.
Jacob's descendants will have the country that belongs to them.
I will give it to them.
18 The people in Jacob's and Joseph's family will kill all the people that belong to Esau's family.’
This is what the Lord said.
19 People will come from the Negev. They will come to live in the mountains of Edom.
People will come from the low hills in the west, and they will take the Philistines' country for themselves.
They will live in the fields in Ephraim and Samaria.[f]
Benjamin's people will take Gilead.
20 Some people lived in Israel,
but they now have to live with the Canaanites.
They will get the country as far as Zarephath.
Some people lived in Jerusalem, but now they have to be in Sepharad.
They will get the towns in the Negev.
21 Men will come to make Jerusalem free,
and they will rule over Edom.
And that country will belong to the Lord.[g]
Jonah runs away
1 The Lord spoke a message to Jonah, Amittai's son.[h] 2 He said, ‘Go now to the great city of Nineveh. Tell the people in the city that I know how wicked they are. Tell them that I will punish them because of their sins.’
3 But Jonah did not want to obey the Lord's command. He decided to run away to Tarshish.[i] He went down to Joppa.[j] There he found a ship that was ready to sail to Tarshish. After he had paid for the journey, he got into the ship. He wanted to go on the ship to Tarshish, to get far away from the Lord.
A big storm
4 Then the Lord sent a strong wind on the sea. The storm was so powerful that it almost broke the ship into pieces. 5 The sailors were very frightened. Each of them called out to his own god for help. They threw into the sea all the things that the ship carried. They wanted to make the ship as light as they could. Jonah had gone down into the bottom of the ship. He was lying down and he was asleep.
6 The ship's captain went to Jonah. He said, ‘Why are you sleeping like that? Get up now! Call to your god for help! Maybe he will listen to us and we will not die.’
7 Then the sailors said to each other, ‘We should throw dice to find out who has brought all this trouble to us.’ So they threw dice. The dice showed that Jonah had caused the storm.
8 So they said to Jonah, ‘Tell us, who has caused all this trouble for us? What is your job? Where do you come from? What country do you live in? Who is your family?’[k]
9 Jonah answered them, ‘I am a Hebrew man. I worship the Lord who is the God of heaven. He made the sea and the land.’ 10 This made the sailors even more afraid. Jonah had already told them that he was running away from the Lord. So they said to him, ‘Why did you do a thing like that?’
11 The waves in the sea were becoming bigger because of the storm. So the sailors asked Jonah, ‘What should we do to you so that the sea becomes quiet?’ 12 Jonah replied, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become quiet. It is because of me that you are in danger from this great storm.’
13 But the sailors did not do what Jonah said. Instead, they tried to use oars to drive the ship back to the land. But the storm was too strong and they could not do that.
14 So the sailors called aloud to the Lord. They prayed, ‘Lord, please do not punish us with death if we have to kill this man! Do not say that we are guilty because we have killed someone who has done nothing wrong. Lord, we know that you have sent this storm because you wanted to do it.’
15 Then the sailors took hold of Jonah and they threw him into the sea. The storm stopped and the sea became quiet. 16 When they saw what had happened, the sailors became very afraid of the Lord's power. They offered a sacrifice to him and they promised that they would serve him.
17 But the Lord sent a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was inside the fish's stomach for three days and three nights.[l]
Jonah's prayer
2 From inside the fish's stomach, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
2 He said,
‘When I was in trouble, I called out to the Lord,
and he answered my prayer.
Yes, I called out to you for help from the deep hole of death,
and you heard my prayer.[m]
3 You threw me into the deep water,
and I fell into the middle of the sea.
The deep water covered me.
You sent big waves to roll over me.
4 I said to myself,
“You have sent me far away from you.
Now I will never see your holy temple again.”[n]
5 The deep water of the sea covered me,
so that my life was in danger.
The plants in the sea were all around my head.
6 I went very deep in the water,
as far as the bottom of the mountains.
Deep in the earth, I was in a prison,
and its gates had shut for ever.
But, Lord, my God,
you brought me up from that deep hole.
7 When my life was nearly gone, I prayed to you, Lord.
In your holy temple, you heard my prayer for help.
8 Idols cannot help.
People who worship them have turned away from a faithful God.
9 But as for me, I will sing to thank you.
I will offer a sacrifice to you.
I will do everything that I have promised to do.
The Lord is the one who saves people!’
10 Then the Lord told the great fish to spit Jonah out from its stomach. So it dropped Jonah onto the shore.
Jonah goes to Nineveh
3 The Lord spoke to Jonah a second time. 2 He said, ‘Now go to that great city, Nineveh. Tell the people there the message that I will give to you.’
3 Jonah obeyed the Lord and he went to Nineveh.
Nineveh was a very large city. Somebody would need three days to walk all through it.
4 When Jonah arrived in Nineveh, he walked for one day into the city. Then he shouted out to the people, ‘After 40 more days, God will destroy Nineveh.’[o]
5 The people who lived in Nineveh believed God's message. They told everyone that they must not eat any food for several days. Everyone had to wear sackcloth to show that they were sorry. The most important people and the ordinary people all did that.
6 The king of Nineveh heard about God's message. He got up from his throne and he removed his royal clothes. He dressed himself in sackcloth and he sat in ashes on the ground.
7 Then the king sent this message to all the people in Nineveh. He said, ‘This command comes from the king and his officers. No person or any of your animals may eat any food or drink any water. 8 Everyone must wear sackcloth. You must cover all your animals with sackcloth too. Everyone must pray to God with all their strength. You must all stop doing bad and cruel things. 9 Then perhaps God may agree to forgive us. He may decide that he will not be angry with us. Then perhaps we will not all die.’
10 God saw what the people in Nineveh did. He saw that they stopped doing evil things. He had said that he would punish them for their sins. But now he decided that he would not destroy them.
Jonah is angry
4 But Jonah was not happy when God decided not to destroy Nineveh. He became very angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord. He said, ‘Lord, this is what I thought would happen when I was still at home. So I decided to run away to Tarshish, so that you could not be kind to the people of Nineveh. I know that you are a God who is very kind and you forgive people. You do not become angry quickly. You always show your faithful love for people. Even when you have said that you will punish people, you decide that you will not do it. 3 Lord, please kill me now! I would rather die than continue to live.’
4 The Lord replied to Jonah, ‘You are not right to be so angry.’
5 Jonah went out of Nineveh. He built a little hut on the east side of the city. He sat in the shade of the hut. He waited to see what would happen to the city.[p]
6 The Lord God made a little plant grow there. He caused it to grow up over Jonah's head to give him shade from the hot sun. This comforted Jonah in his trouble. Jonah was very happy about the plant.
7 But at dawn the next day, God sent a worm to attack the plant. So then the plant died. 8 When the sun rose, God caused a hot wind to blow from the east. The hot sun shone on Jonah's head so that he became very weak. He wanted to die. He said, ‘I would rather die than continue to live.’
9 But God said to Jonah, ‘You are not right to be so angry about the plant.’
Jonah said, ‘I am right to be angry! I am so angry that I want to die.’
10 But the Lord said to Jonah, ‘You are upset about what happened to this little plant. But you did not plant it. You did not help it to grow. It grew up quickly during one night and by the next night it had died. You are sorry about such a little thing! 11 So it is right for me to be sorry about Nineveh. It is a great city. More than 120,000 people live in it. They cannot understand the difference between what is right and what is wrong. They also have many farm animals.’
God will destroy the city of Samaria
1 These are the messages that the Lord gave to Micah.[q] Then Micah told them to the people during the times that Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah ruled the country called Judah. Micah was born in a small town called Moresheth. God showed Micah about what would happen to the cities called Samaria and Jerusalem.[r]
2 Listen, all of you people everywhere!
Hear this, everyone who lives on the earth!
The Lord God will speak against you.
You have done what is wrong. That is why he will speak against you.
He will speak from his special house.
3 Look! The Lord is leaving his place and he is coming down to the earth.
He will come to the high places (where you worship false gods).
He will destroy those places when he comes.
4 The mountains will melt when he comes,
like wax melts near a fire.
The valleys will also break into pieces.
They will move like water when it rushes down a hill.
5 All these bad things will happen because Jacob's people have refused to obey God.
These things will happen because Israel's people have done wrong things.
You may ask who has caused this.
It is the leaders in your capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem.
They have kept the high places there for people to offer gifts to false gods.
6 So God says to you:
‘I will destroy Samaria so that just a few stones are lying in the fields there.[s]
Then people will plant vines in that place.[t]
I will throw the stones from the city down into the valley,
when I completely destroy all the buildings.
7 I will break all the false gods into pieces and I will destroy them.
I will burn all the gifts that the people brought for those false gods.
The people have paid so that they could have sex with bad women in those places.
Your enemies will come and they will take away this money.
They will give it to their gods in the same way.’
Micah is sad for the people in Israel and Judah
8 Because of what God has said, I will cry aloud. And I will weep.
I will walk about without shoes or clothes.
I will scream like a wild dog,
and I will cry like a bird in the night.
9 Because Samaria has such bad wounds it can never get well.
And the same will happen also to Judah's people.
The enemies have already reached the gates of my people, that is, Jerusalem itself.
10 Do not talk about this in the city of Gath.
Do not even weep there.
But you people at Beth-Leaphrah,
roll on the ground to show how sad you are.
11 You people who live in Shaphir, go on your way.
Your enemies will not let you wear any clothes while they take you away.
So you will be ashamed.
The people who live in Zaanan will be afraid to leave their city.
The people at Beth-Ezel will cry because nobody comes to help them.
12 The people at Maroth are in pain while they wait.
They were waiting and hoping for something good.
But the Lord sent only something bad.
He brought trouble even to the gates of Jerusalem.
13 You people who live in Lachish, get your chariots and horses ready to go!
You were the first people in Judah to do what is wrong.
You are exactly like Israel's people, because, like them, you refused to obey God.
14 You will need to give gifts to the people in Moresheth Gath,
because they must go away.
The houses in Akzib town will disappoint the kings of Israel.[u]
15 People in Mareshah, I (God) will bring an army against you,
to fight your town. And it will win.
And Israel's leaders will need to hide at Adullam.[v]
16 People in Judah, cut off all your hair.[w]
Make yourselves bald like vultures,[x]
because you will be very sad.
Your enemies will take your children away.
They will take your children, whom you love so much, away to another country!
God says that bad things will happen to the bad people
2 Micah continues:
People who prepare to do bad things should be afraid.
God will do bad things to them!
While they lie in bed, they think about bad things to do.
Then, when the morning comes, they do those bad things.
They have the authority to do whatever they want to do.
2 When they want fields, they take them from other people.
When they want houses, they take them.
These cruel people take other people's homes and fields;
then those people's families have nothing.
3 So the Lord says this to them:
‘I am against you.
You cannot save yourselves.
I will prepare trouble for you.
Then you will stop thinking that you are so very clever and important.
It will be a time of much trouble for you.
4 At that time, your enemies will laugh at you.
They will sing this sad song against you:
“God has completely destroyed us!
We no longer have any fields, because God has taken them away from us.
He has given them to our enemies, who have turned away from what is right.”
5 So, when the Lord's people measure the land again to give fields to everyone,
you will get none.[y]
You will have nobody to speak on your behalf.’
False prophets
6 The people say to me, ‘Do not prophesy against us![z]
Do not say that we will have trouble.
God will not make us ashamed!’
7 You should not talk like that, you who are descendants of Jacob.
Do you think that the Lord's Spirit will always be patient with you?
If you agree to do what is right, then you will accept that my message is good.
8 The Lord says:
‘You have become like enemies among my people.
You rob people of their coats when they pass by.
Even men who thought that they were safe now.
You even rob men who are returning home from war.
9 You rob the women among my people too.
You take away their happy homes.
So you take away what I want their children to enjoy.
10 Get up and go away!
You cannot remain in this place because you have made it bad.
It is so bad that it will completely destroy you.
11 When a person speaks false messages to you, then you believe them.
They might say that you would have plenty of wine and strong drink.
That is the message that you would like!’[aa]
God promises to bring his people back together
12 ‘You people of Israel, I promise to bring all of you together.
I will bring back together all Israel's people who remain.
I will put all of you together like sheep in a field with a wall round it.
You will be like a field full of sheep.
There will be a loud noise because there will be so many of you.
13 The person who breaks open the way will go in front of you.
Then you will go out through the gate.
I am the Lord, your king, and I will lead you out.’
Micah speaks against the bad leaders of Israel
3 Then I spoke to the leaders:
Listen to me, I said.
You are the leaders of Jacob's people,
you are the rulers of Israel.
You ought to know what is right or wrong.
2 But you hate what is good.
And you love what is bad.
You would like to tear the skin off my people,
and pull the meat from their bones.
3 You look at my people and you are like butchers.
They strip the skin off an animal and they break its bones.
Then they cut the meat into pieces and they cook it in a pot.
They are happy when they eat the meat.
4 One day you will shout to the Lord for help,
but he will not answer you.
Instead, God will turn away from you at that time,
because you have done those bad things.
5 The Lord says this: ‘It will be very bad for the prophets who tell false messages. They lead my people the wrong way with false promises. If people give food to them, then they are happy. So they promise that there will be no war. But, if people do not feed them, they become angry. They promise that war will come.
6 Because of that, it will become like night for you.
I will not show you my messages.
You will no longer see what will happen in future times.
The sun will go down over you prophets,
and the day will become dark for you.
7 Then you prophets will be ashamed.
You who tell what will happen in future times will be confused.
You will hide your faces in shame because you have no message from me.’
8 But the Spirit of the Lord fills me, to make me powerful.
He helps me to know what is right and fair.
He makes me brave so that I can speak to you, Jacob's people.
I can tell you what you have done wrong.
You are Israel's people,
but you have not obeyed God.[ab]
9 So listen to this, you leaders of Jacob's people.
You are Israel's rulers.
But you never do what is right and fair.
You take what is good.
And you make it seem bad.
10 You rule Zion city, which is Jerusalem.
But you are cruel, and you kill honest people.[ac]
11 You are the city's rulers, but you accept bribes.
Then you do not judge people in a fair way.
You priests teach people only if they pay you.[ad]
You prophets speak about what will happen in future times.
But you only speak if you receive money.
But you still say that you trust the Lord.
You say, ‘The Lord is with us, so nothing bad will happen to us.’
12 Because of how you live, Zion will be like a field that a farmer has dug.
Jerusalem will become a heap of stones.
Trees will cover the hill where the temple is now.[ae]
God's mountain
4 In the last days,
the mountain where the Lord's house is will be the highest mountain.
It will be the most important of all the mountains.
It will be higher than the hills,
and people from many countries will go to it.
2 Many people will speak about it.
‘Come! We will go up to the Lord's mountain,’ they will say.
‘We will go to the Lord's house because he is the God of Jacob's people.
He will teach us what he wants us to do.
He will show us the right way; so then we will be able to obey him.
The Lord will speak his rules from Zion.
He will send out his message from Jerusalem.’
3 He will judge between the people of many nations
When they argue together, he will decide who is right.
He will cause strong nations everywhere to stop fighting each other.
They fight with swords and spears.[af]
But at that time, they will make their swords into ploughs.
They will make their spears into knives to cut their vines.
Nations will no longer need weapons to fight each other.
They will never prepare to fight wars again.
4 Everyone will sit under his own vine and his own fig tree.[ag]
Nobody will make them afraid any longer.[ah]
The Lord Almighty has promised this.
5 People from other countries may be the servants of other gods.
But we will be servants of the Lord our God.
We will obey him always.
God will make Israel and Jerusalem strong again
6 The Lord speaks again:
‘At that time I will bring together the people who cannot walk well.
I will bring back the people that I sent away.
I caused trouble for those people,
but I will bring them back together.
7 I will make a new beginning with those people who cannot walk well.
Together with some of those people that I sent far away,
I will make them my own special people.
They will be strong,
and I will rule over them from Mount Zion.
I will be their king from that time and always.
8 And as for Jerusalem,
it was a strong, safe place for Zion's people.
It was like a tall building,
from which a man can watch over his sheep.
Then it will again be a place where a king rules with great authority.’
9 You people in Jerusalem,
you are crying aloud like people who have no king.
You cry like people who have no wise leader.[ai]
You have bad pains like a woman who is giving birth to a baby.
10 People in Zion, you will have a lot of pain,
like a woman who is giving birth to a baby.
She rolls about and she screams with pain.
Soon you will have to leave your city and you will have to live in the fields.
You will have to go to Babylon,
but there the Lord will save you.
He will make you free again from the authority of your enemies.
11 But now, at this time, many countries have come together to attack your city.
They say: ‘We will destroy Jerusalem and we will enjoy ourselves.
We want to see Zion's people in trouble.’
12 But they do not know the Lord's thoughts.
They do not understand how he will punish them.
He will bring them together,
as people bring bundles of wheat together at harvest time.[aj]
He will punish them,
as people thresh wheat to get the seeds out.[ak]
13 ‘People in Zion, get up and fight your enemies,’ God says to you.
‘Hit them like people thresh the wheat.
I will make you very strong.
Then you will be like dangerous animals with iron horns and metal feet.[al]
You will beat enemies from many countries,
as men crush things into small pieces.
The people from those countries became rich,
because they did bad things.
But you will bring their riches to me,
because I am the Lord of all the earth.’[am]
The ruler that God chooses will be born in Bethlehem
5 Soldiers in Jerusalem, come together!
Get ready, because your enemies are attacking you.
They are all round the city, ready to fight.
They will hit Israel's ruler on his face with a stick.[an]
2 But God tells us this:
‘Bethlehem Ephrathah is only a little town,
among all the many towns in Judah,’ God says.
‘But I will choose someone who is born there.[ao]
He will rule Israel for me.
Long, long ago, I prepared for him to come.’
3 So God will turn away from his people,
until the time that the woman gives birth to this baby in Bethlehem.
Then this ruler's own people who are still alive will return to Israel.
4 And this ruler will stay strong because the Lord will make him strong.
He will supply what his people need.
He will be like a man who supplies everything for his sheep.
He will rule with authority from the Lord his God,
and his people will be safe.
So then, all over the world, people will know that he is great.
5 And he will cause the people to rest,
so that they have no trouble.
Assyria's soldiers will come to attack our country.
They will march through our large, strong buildings.
Then we will choose seven or eight leaders to fight against them.[ap]
6 These leaders will use their swords to destroy Assyria.
They will beat the people in the country called Nimrod with swords in their hands.[aq]
Assyria's soldiers will come into our country.
They will march across our borders,
but our ruler will save us from them.
God's people will be strong again
7 And later, Jacob's people who are still alive will be in many countries.
They will be everywhere,
like water on the ground in the early morning,
or rain on the grass.
The Lord sends the water to help the plants,
but no human can make it stay.
8 Jacob's people who are still alive will be living among people in many other countries.
They will become like a dangerous lion among the other animals in the forest.[ar]
They will become like a young lion among people's sheep.
The lion attacks other animals.
It knocks them down and it tears them in pieces.
Nobody can save them.[as]
9 You will be strong like that and so you will beat your enemies.
You will kill all of them.
God wants people to obey him
10 ‘At that time,’ the Lord says, ‘I will take your horses away from you.
I will destroy your chariots.
11 I will destroy the cities in your country.
I will knock down all your strong buildings.
12 You make bad spirits help you.
But I will destroy the things that you use to talk to them.
You will have nobody to tell you about future times.
13 You bend down to worship tall stones and idols.[at]
But I will destroy all of them.
You will stop worshipping things that you have made with your own hands.
14 You worship the false god Asherah,[au]
but I will pull her poles from the ground.
I will even destroy your cities.
15 Also I will punish all the people in other countries who refuse to obey me.
I will show them that I am very angry with them.’
God has a quarrel with Israel's people
6 Now listen to what the Lord says:
‘Stand up! Explain in front of the mountains what I want to say.
Speak loud so that the hills can hear your voice.[av]
2 Listen, you mountains.
Hear this, you strong places that have always been there deep in the earth.
The Lord has a quarrel with Israel's people.
Hear the reasons why the Lord is angry with you, his people.’
3 ‘My people, what bad thing have I done to you?’ God asks.
‘How have I made you tired of me?
Answer me.
4 I brought you out of Egypt.
You were slaves in that country,
but I made you free people.
I sent Moses to lead you,
and Aaron and Miriam with him.
5 My people, please remember the bad things that King Balak of Moab tried to do.
And remember what Balaam, Beor's son, answered him.[aw]
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal.[ax]
Then you will remember that I, the Lord, do good things.’
What God wants from his people
6 ‘I come to meet with the Lord,’ you say.[ay]
‘I must know what to bring when I come.
I bend down to worship him.
I must know what to offer when I bend down.
He is God and he is greater than everything.
Perhaps he would like it if I burn young cows one year old for him.
7 He might be happy with thousands of male sheep,
or ten thousand rivers of olive oil.
I have not obeyed God.
I might even kill and burn my oldest son, because of that.
I have done wrong things and I must pay God for that.
Perhaps, if I give my own child to him, that will be enough to pay.’
8 But God has told us what is good.[az] This is what the Lord wants from us:
‘You must be fair to other people,’ God says.
‘You must want to be kind.[ba]
And you must be careful to do what I show you.’
God will punish people that are not honest
9 The Lord shouts to the people in the city of Jerusalem.
So it is good for us to listen carefully to what he says.
‘Listen to me, because I have the authority to punish you,’ God says.
10 ‘You bad people still hide valuable things that you have taken from other people.
I will not forget this.
You bad people use false weights to measure the food that you sell.
I hate that.
11 I will not excuse you people who use false weights.
You are not being honest if you weigh things like that.
12 You rich people in the city are very cruel.
Everyone there says things that are not true.
All of them speak false words.
13 So I will make you so sick that you will never get well.
I have begun to destroy you because you have done bad things.
14 You will eat, but you will still feel hungry.
You will store things and you will try to keep them safe.
But you will fail to save them.
I will cause enemies to destroy all your things in the war.
15 You will plant seeds,
but you will not bring in the harvest.
You will crush olives,
but you will not use the olive oil for yourselves.[bb]
You will crush grapes,
but you will not drink the wine from them.
16 You have obeyed the rules of King Omri.
You have done what King Ahab and all his people did.[bc]
You have copied their wicked ideas.
So I must destroy you and all your things completely.
Then people from other countries will not be kind or polite to you.
Instead, they will make you ashamed.’
Israel's people are very bad, but Micah still believes God
7 I am very sad!
I am like someone who comes to trees with no fruit on them.
Other people have picked the fruit already.
So I am like those people who can only pick the last grapes.
Those are the grapes that other people leave behind.
Really, there are no grapes there to eat.
There are none of the first figs that I like so much.
2 There are no longer any people here who obey God.
There are no good, honest people.
Everyone is waiting to kill someone else.
They are all like hunters, who try to catch each other.
3 They know very well how to work together to do bad things.
Rulers demand gifts and judges ask for money.[bd]
Powerful bad people always get what they want.
All these people work together to do what is bad.
4 The best of them are dangerous like wild plants with thorns.[be]
The most honest of them are worse than thorn bushes.
The bad time that your prophets told you about is coming.
Soon God will punish you,
and you will be confused.
5 Do not believe anyone, even somebody that you know well.
You cannot be sure that your friend will always be honest with you.
Be careful what you say to your wife.
Be careful even when you are hugging her.
6 Sons think that their fathers are fools.
And daughters refuse to obey their mothers.
Wives quarrel with their husbands' mothers.
A man's enemies are the people who live in his own house now.
7 But as for me, I will watch for what the Lord will do.
I will wait for God, who saves me.
I know that he hears me.
Israel's enemies will be ashamed
8 My enemy, do not be happy because I am in trouble.[bf]
I have fallen down, but I will get up.
I am in the dark, but the Lord will be a light to me.
9 I have not obeyed the Lord,
so he is angry with me.
He will continue to punish me,
until the time when he speaks for me.
Then he will make things right for me.
He will bring me out into the light.
He always does what is really right.
And I will see that then.
10 ‘Why does the Lord your God not help you?’ my enemies say to me.
They will see what God does for me.
Then they will be very ashamed.
And I will see the bad things that happen to them.
Soon other people will crush them and beat them.
Then they will be like wet ground in the streets under people's feet.
Jerusalem will be great again
11 But the time will come for you to build the walls of your cities again.
You will make the borders of your country much wider then.
12 At that time many of Assyria's people and Egypt's people will come to you.
People will come to you from the countries between Egypt and the River Euphrates.
They will come to you from all over the earth,
from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 The other parts of the earth will become sad places where nobody lives.
God will destroy them because of the people who live there.
Those people have done what is bad.
Micah talks to God
14 Rule us and lead us, Lord.
You are like a man who leads his sheep.
He uses a strong stick to lead them.
We are your own special people.
We are like a group of sheep that lives by itself in a forest.
There is good grass all round them.
Let your sheep eat grass in Bashan and Gilead,
as they did a long time ago.[bg]
15 Lord, you did great things long ago,
when you brought us out of the land of Egypt.
Do great things like that again.
16 The people in other countries will see what you do.
They will understand that they are not really powerful.
So then they will be ashamed.
They will be like deaf people and dumb people.
17 They will be like snakes that move along the ground.
They will be afraid and they will eat dust like snakes.[bh]
They will come carefully out of their safe places,
because they are afraid of you, the Lord our God.
18 No other god is like you.
You chose us to be your people.
And you decide not to remember what we have done wrong.
Not many of your people remain and we have done bad things.
But you choose to forget those bad things.
You will not always be angry,
because you want very much to be kind.
19 You like to be kind because you love us.
You will remove everything that we have done wrong.
You will crush those bad things.
You will throw all of them into the deep sea.
20 You will continue to be kind to us,
because we are Jacob's and Abraham's people.[bi]
That is what you promised to our grandfathers a long time ago.
God is angry with Nineveh
1 Nahum lives in Elkosh and this is his prophecy about the people in Nineveh.[bj]
2 God is angry with the people in Nineveh. The Lord loves his people.[bk] But he is very angry with his enemies. He is so angry with them that he must punish them. He will be angry until he has killed his enemies. 3 The Lord will punish those who do wrong things. But he does not get angry quickly. He is a powerful God. The Lord does not get angry quickly. But he gets angry when people do wrong things. Then he punishes those people.
He is very powerful. You can see his power in the wind and the storms. The clouds are like dust that his feet shake. 4 He can cause the sea and the rivers to become dry by one word. The fertile places of Bashan and Carmel become dry and the green forests of Lebanon die too.[bl] 5 He causes the mountains to shake and he causes the hills to become flat. The earth and all the people in the world are afraid of God.
6 Nobody can fight God when he is very angry. The Lord pours his anger out like fire and he breaks the rocks in his path. 7 The Lord loves those who believe him. When they are in trouble, they can put their hope in God. 8 But the people in Nineveh are his enemies and he will kill them. 9 The Lord will stop anything that you decide to do immediately. He does not let his enemies have a second chance. 10 He will kill them. And then it will be like when thorn bushes have caught people. Or it will be like when they have drunk too much alcohol. It will be like when someone burns dry straw. 11 The Lord tells the king of Nineveh that he has done bad things against God. And the king has told his people that they should do wrong things.
12 The Lord has said, ‘The people in Nineveh are many. And they think that they are safe. But I will kill them. I have punished you, my people, before now. But I will not punish you any more. 13 Now I will make you free from the people from Nineveh. And I will break the things that are holding you like iron.’
14 Nineveh, the Lord has said what will happen to you. He has said, ‘You will have no children and your family name will have an end. I will destroy the statues that you made from wood and metal. You worship those statues in your temples. There I will make graves for you because you are bad.’
15 People in Judah, look at the mountains. You will see the feet of the person who will bring good news. He causes peace. You can have your special festivals again now. And now you can do what you promised to me. The bad people will not win a war against you because I have killed them.[bm]
God will destroy Nineveh
2 An enemy is coming to attack you, people of Nineveh. Watch carefully from the city's walls! Prepare your army to protect the city. Watch the road. Get ready to fight with all your strength!
2 Your soldiers have destroyed the great nations of Israel and Jacob. They have destroyed their fields and their vineyards. But, the Lord will make Israel and Jacob great again.[bn]
3 Strong soldiers are coming to attack Nineveh! They have red shields and bright red clothes. The soldiers wave their spears in the air. The metal on their chariots shines brightly. 4 When the soldiers are ready for war they move quickly through the streets. Their chariots move very fast, like lightning in the sky. 5 The army leader chooses his best soldiers to go forward. They almost fall as they run! They hurry to the city wall and they prepare to attack. 6 They open the river gates and the water rushes into the city. It destroys the palace. 7 Nineveh's people must be led away to another country. They are ashamed. Her female slaves cry like doves and they hit themselves.
8 Nineveh is like a pool of water. But now its people run away, like water that is pouring away. ‘Stop, stop!’ they shout, but nobody comes back.
9 Take the silver. Take the gold. The city has so many valuable things.[bo]
10 They take the valuable things from the city. They take everything that they can. And they destroy everything else. The people are very sad. Their knees and their bodies shake. Their faces become white because they are afraid. 11 The home of the lions has gone. The place where they fed their young lions has gone. This was the place where whole families of lions once lived. It is here where their young lions were not afraid. 12 The lion killed to give enough food to his young lions and he strangled animals to feed his female lion. He filled his home with the animals that he had killed.
13 The Lord Almighty says, ‘I am against you. I will burn your chariots and the sword will kill your young lions. I will take away all the animals that you attack. Nobody will hear the voices of your messengers.’[bp]
Nineveh has done many bad things
3 Terrible things will happen to you, Nineveh. Your people are murderers and they love to tell lies. The city is full of valuable things that they have taken from other people. 2 Listen to the loud noises of the whips, the chariots, the wheels and the feet of the horses. The chariots are moving fast towards Nineveh. 3 See the bright swords and spears in the hands of the horses' riders. There are dead bodies that are lying in the streets. It is like mountains of dead bodies everywhere. There are so many dead bodies that men fall over the bodies. 4 This is because Nineveh has sold herself to the enemies of God. She is like a beautiful prostitute. She uses her body and her bad magic to make all the people in other countries her slaves.
5 This is why I am against you, says the Lord Almighty. I will make you like a woman whose skirt is up over her face. I will show the countries that you are like that woman. You will be like a woman who is not wearing any clothes. 6 I will throw dirt at you. I will do with you like you were nothing. And I will make everyone ashamed of you. 7 When people see you, they will run away. And they will say, ‘They have destroyed Nineveh. Nobody will be sad.’ There will be nobody to help you.
8 Remember the city of Thebes that was near the River Nile. It had water all round it. The river kept it safe, like a wall. Nineveh is not better than Thebes was. 9 The countries of Ethiopia and Egypt were strong friends. And Put and Libya were strong friends too.
10 But the enemies of Thebes took its people away and they made them slaves. They cut their babies to pieces in every street. They played games with the great men from Thebes and they put them in iron chains. 11 You will be like a man who has drunk too much alcohol. And you will try to hide. You will try to get help from your enemy. 12 All your strong places are like fig trees. They will fall very easily when the enemies shake them. And your valuable things will be like figs that fall into people's mouths. 13 Look at your soldiers, they are all like women! Your enemies have burned your gates and they have pushed them wide open.
14 Take as much water as you can for the attack. Make your walls strong. Do repairs to your buildings. 15 The fire will burn you. The sword will cut you and it will kill you like grasshoppers. Grow in number like the grasshoppers and locusts.
16 You welcomed traders into your city until there were more than all the stars in the sky. But they are like locusts. They take everything from the land and then they fly away. 17 Your army and officers are so many that they are like locusts. Locusts stay on the walls on a cold day. But when the sun comes out, they fly away. And then nobody knows where they go.
18 King of Assyria, the people who keep your people safe are asleep. Also, your powerful men are lying down to rest. Your people have run away to the mountains with nobody to get them together.
19 You have received a bad wound and nobody can make it better. People have heard about what happened to you. All of them are very happy and they clap their hands. That is because you have done cruel things to all of them.
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