Jonah 1

1 This is the word of the LORD that came to Jonah, son of Amittai:
2 Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me.
3 But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the LORD. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went aboard to journey with them to Tarshish, away from the LORD.
4 The LORD, however, hurled a violent wind upon the sea, and in the furious tempest that arose the ship was on the point of breaking up.
5 Then the mariners became frightened and each one cried to his god. To lighten the ship for themselves, they threw its cargo into the sea. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and lay there fast asleep.
6 The captain came to him and said, What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God! Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish.
7 Then they said to one another, Come, let us cast lots to find out on whose account we have met with this misfortune. So they cast lots, and thus singled out Jonah.
8 Tell us, they said, what is your business? Where do you come from? What is your country, and to what people do you belong?
9 I am a Hebrew, Jonah answered them; I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.
10 Now the men were seized with great fear and said to him, How could you do such a thing!--They knew that he was fleeing from the LORD, because he had told them.--
11 What shall we do with you, they asked, that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea was growing more and more turbulent.
12 Jonah said to them, Pick me up and throw me into the sea, that it may quiet down for you; since I know it is because of me that this violent storm has come upon you.
13 Still the men rowed hard to regain the land, but they could not, for the sea grew ever more turbulent.
14 Then they cried to the LORD: We beseech you, O LORD, let us not perish for taking this man's life; do not charge us with shedding innocent blood, for you, LORD, have done as you saw fit.
15 Then they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea's raging abated.
16 Struck with great fear of the LORD, the men offered sacrifice and made vows to him.
17 But the LORD sent a large fish, that swallowed Jonah; and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah 2

1 From the belly of the fish Jonah said this prayer to the LORD, his God:
2 Out of my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me; From the midst of the nether world I cried for help, and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea, and the flood enveloped me; All your breakers and your billows passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am banished from your sight! yet would I again look upon your holy temple.
5 The waters swirled about me, threatening my life; the abyss enveloped me; seaweed clung about my head.
6 Down I went to the roots of the mountains; the bars of the nether world were closing behind me forever, But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD, my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; My prayer reached you in your holy temple.
8 Those who worship vain idols forsake their source of mercy.
9 But I, with resounding praise, will sacrifice to you; What I have vowed I will pay: deliverance is from the LORD.
10 Then the LORD commanded the fish to spew Jonah upon the shore.

Jonah 3

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
2 Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.
3 So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD'S bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it.
4 Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,
5 when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
7 Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
8 Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand.
9 Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.
10 When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.

Jonah 4

1 But this was greatly displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.
2 I beseech you, LORD, he prayed, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish.
3 And now, LORD, please take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
4 But the LORD asked, Have you reason to be angry?
5 Jonah then left the city for a place to the east of it, where he built himself a hut and waited under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city.
6 And when the LORD God provided a gourd plant, that grew up over Jonah's head, giving shade that relieved him of any discomfort, Jonah was very happy over the plant.
7 But the next morning at dawn God sent a worm which attacked the plant, so that it withered.
8 And when the sun arose, God sent a burning east wind; and the sun beat upon Jonah's head till he became faint. Then he asked for death, saying, I would be better off dead than alive.
9 But God said to Jonah, Have you reason to be angry over the plant? I have reason to be angry, Jonah answered, angry enough to die.
10 Then the LORD said, You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished.
11 And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?

Micah 1

1 The word of the LORD which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: that is, the vision he received concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, O peoples, all of you, give heed, O earth, and all that fills you! Let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple!
3 For see, the LORD comes forth from his place, he descends and treads upon the heights of the earth.
4 The mountains melt under him and the valleys split open, Like wax before the fire, like water poured down a slope.
5 For the crime of Jacob all this comes to pass, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the crime of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 I will make Samaria a stone heap in the field, a place to plant for vineyards; I will throw down into the valley her stones, and lay bare her foundations.
7 All her idols shall be broken to pieces, all her wages shall be burned in the fire, and all her statues I will destroy. As the wages of a harlot they were gathered, and to the wages of a harlot shall they return.
8 For this reason I lament and wail, I go barefoot and naked; I utter lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.
9 There is no remedy for the blow she has been struck; rather, it has come even to Judah, It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
10 Publish it not in Gath, weep not at all; In Beth-leaphrah roll in the dust.
11 Pass by, you who dwell in Shaphir! The inhabitants of Zaanan come not forth from their city. The lamentation of Beth-ezel finds in you its grounds.
12 How can the inhabitants of Maroth hope for good? For evil has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness steeds to the chariots, O inhabitants of Lachish; Lachish, the beginning of sin for daughter Zion, Because there were in you the crimes of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath; Beth-achzib is a deception to the kings of Israel.
15 Yet must I bring to you the conqueror, O inhabitants of Mareshah; Even to Adullam shall go the glory of Israel.
16 Make yourself bald, pluck out your hair, for the children whom you cherish; Let your baldness be as the eagle's, because they are exiled from you.

Micah 2

1 Woe to those who plan iniquity, and work out evil on their couches; In the morning light they accomplish it when it lies within their power.
2 They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and they take them; They cheat an owner of his house, a man of his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I am planning against this race an evil from which you shall not withdraw your necks; Nor shall you walk with head high, for it will be a time of evil.
4 On that day a satire shall be sung over you, and there shall be a plaintive chant: Our ruin is complete, our fields are portioned out among our captors, The fields of my people are measured out, and no one can get them back!
5 Thus you shall have no one to mark out boundaries by lot in the assembly of the LORD.
6 Preach not, they preach, let them not preach of these things! The shame will not withdraw.
7 How can it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the LORD short of patience, or are such his deeds? Do not my words promise good to him who walks uprightly?
8 But of late my people has risen up as an enemy: you have stripped off the mantle covering the tunic Of those who go their way in confidence, as though it were spoils of war.
9 The women of my people you drive out from their pleasant houses; From their children you take away forever the honor I gave them.
10 Up! Be off, this is no place to rest; For any trifle you exact a crippling pledge.
11 If one, acting on impulse, should make the futile claim: I pour you wine and strong drink as my prophecy, then he would be the prophet of this people.
12 I will gather you, O Jacob, each and every one, I will assemble all the remnant of Israel; I will group them like a flock in the fold, like a herd in the midst of its corral; they shall not be thrown into panic by men.
13 With a leader to break the path they shall burst open the gate and go out through it; Their king shall go through before them, and the LORD at their head.