Holman Christian Standard Bible (272 page)

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Obadiah
1
The vision of Obadiah.
Edom's Certain Judgment
This is what the Lord
God
has said about Edom: 
We have heard a message from the 
Lord

a messenger has been sent among the nations:
“Rise up, and let us go to war against her.” 
2
 Look, I will make you insignificant 
among the nations;
you will be deeply despised.
3
 Your presumptuous heart has deceived you, 
you who live in clefts of the rock, 
in your home on the heights,
who say to yourself,
“Who can bring me down to the ground? ” 
4
 Though you seem to soar like an eagle 
and make your nest among the stars, 
even from there I will bring you down.
This is the 
Lord
's declaration.
5
 If thieves came to you, 
if marauders by night —
how ravaged you would be! —
wouldn't they steal only what they wanted?
If grape pickers came to you,
wouldn't they leave some grapes? 
6
 How Esau will be pillaged, 
his hidden treasures searched out! 
7
 Everyone who has a treaty with you 
will drive you to the border;
everyone at peace with you
will deceive and conquer you.
Those who eat your bread 
will set a trap for you.
He will be unaware of it. 
8
 In that day —
this is the 
Lord
's declaration —
will I not eliminate the wise ones of Edom 
and those who understand
from the hill country of Esau?
9
 Teman, your warriors will be terrified
so that everyone from the hill country of Esau
will be destroyed by slaughter. 
Edom's Sins against Judah
10
 You will be covered with shame
and destroyed forever
because of violence done to your brother Jacob. 
11
 On the day you stood aloof, 
on the day strangers captured his wealth, 
while foreigners entered his 
•gate
and cast lots for Jerusalem, 
you were just like one of them. 
12
 Do not gloat over your brother 
in the day of his calamity;
do not rejoice over the people of Judah 
in the day of their destruction;
do not boastfully mock
in the day of distress. 
13
 Do not enter the gate of My people
in the day of their disaster. 
Yes, you — do not gloat over their misery
in the day of their disaster
and do not appropriate their possessions 
in the day of their disaster.
14
 Do not stand at the crossroads
to cut off their fugitives,
and do not hand over their survivors
in the day of distress.
Judgment of the Nations
15
 For the Day of the 
Lord
 is near,
against all the nations. 
As you have done, so it will be done to you;
what you deserve will return on your own head. 
16
 As you have drunk on My holy mountain, 
so all the nations will drink continually. 
They will drink and gulp down
and be as though they had never been.
17
 But there will be a deliverance on Mount 
•Zion

and it will be holy; 
the house of Jacob will dispossess 
those who dispossessed them.
18
 Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire, 
and the house of Joseph, a burning flame,
but the house of Esau will be stubble;
Jacob will set them on fire and consume Edom. 
Therefore no survivor will remain 
of the house of Esau,
for the
Lord
has spoken.
Future Blessing for Israel
19
 People from the 
•Negev
will possess 
the hill country of Esau; 
those from the Judean foothills will possess
the land of the Philistines. 
They will possess
the territories of Ephraim and Samaria, 
while Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20
 The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah 
and who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath 
as well as the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
will possess the cities of the Negev. 
21
 Saviors will ascend Mount Zion 
to rule over the hill country of Esau,
but the kingdom will be the 
Lord
's. 
Jonah
Jonah 1
Jonah 2
Jonah 3
Jonah 4
Jonah
Jonah's Flight
1
The word of the
Lord
came to Jonah son of Amittai: 
2
 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has confronted Me.” 
3
 However, Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the
Lord
's presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, from the
Lord
's presence.
4
 Then the
Lord
hurled a violent wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart.
5
 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They threw the ship's cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep. 
6
 The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and we won't perish.”
7
 “Come on! ” the sailors said to each other. “Let's cast lots. Then we'll know who is to blame for this trouble we're in.” So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah. 
8
 Then they said to him, “Tell us who is to blame for this trouble we're in. What is your business and where are you from? What is your country and what people are you from? ”
9
 He answered them, “I'm a Hebrew. I worship 
•Yahweh
, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10
 Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What is this you've done? ” The men knew he was fleeing from the
Lord
's presence, because he had told them.
11
 So they said to him, “What should we do to you to calm this sea that's against us? ” For the sea was getting worse and worse.
12
 He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so it may quiet down for you, for I know that I'm to blame for this violent storm that is against you.”
13
 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn't because the sea was raging against them more and more.
14
 So they called out to the
Lord
: “Please, Yahweh, don't let us perish because of this man's life, and don't charge us with innocent blood! For You, Yahweh, have done just as You pleased.” 
15
 Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 
16
 The men
•feared
the
Lord
 even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the
Lord
and made vows. 
17 
Now the
Lord
had appointed a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights. 
Jonah
Jonah's Prayer
2
Jonah prayed to the
Lord
his God from inside the fish: 
2
 I called to the
Lord
in my distress, 
and He answered me.
I cried out for help in the belly of 
•Sheol

You heard my voice. 
3
 You threw me into the depths, 
into the heart of the seas, 
and the current overcame me.
All Your breakers and Your billows swept over me. 
4
 But I said: I have been banished 
from Your sight, 
yet I will look once more 
toward Your holy temple. 
5
 The waters engulfed me up to the neck;
the watery depths overcame me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head. 
6
 I sank to the foundations of the mountains; 
the earth with its prison bars closed behind me forever! 
But You raised my life from the 
•Pit
,
Lord
 my God! 
7
 As my life was fading away, 
I remembered
•Yahweh

My prayer came to You, 
to Your holy temple. 
8
 Those who cling to worthless idols 
forsake faithful love, 
9
 but as for me, I will sacrifice to You
with a voice of thanksgiving. 
I will fulfill what I have vowed.
Salvation is from the 
Lord

10
 Then the
Lord
commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah
Jonah's Preaching
3
Then the word of the
Lord
came to Jonah a second time: 
2
 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.”
3
 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the
Lord
's command.
Now Nineveh was an extremely large city, a three-day walk. 
4
 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished! ”
5
 The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in
•sackcloth
 — from the greatest of them to the least.
6
 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7
 Then he issued a decree in Nineveh:
By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water.
8
 Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. 
9
 Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish. 
10
 Then God saw their actions — that they had turned from their evil ways  — so God relented from the disaster He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it.
Jonah
Jonah's Anger
4
But Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. 
2
 He prayed to the
Lord
: “Please,
Lord
, isn't this what I said while I was still in my own country? That's why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster. 
3
 And now,
Lord
, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 
4
 The
Lord
asked, “Is it right for you to be angry? ”
5
 Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.
6
 Then the
Lord
God appointed a plant, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah's head to ease his discomfort. Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.
7
 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered. 
8
 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down so much on Jonah's head that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It's better for me to die than to live.” 
9
 Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? ”
“Yes,” he replied. “It is right. I'm angry enough to die! ”
10
 So the
Lord
said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night.
11
 Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals? ” 
Micah
Micah 1
Micah 2
Micah 3
Micah 4
Micah 5
Micah 6
Micah 7

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