The Living Bible (287 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
This change of plans made Jonah very angry.
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He complained to the Lord about it: “This is exactly what I thought you’d do, Lord, when I was there in my own country and you first told me to come here. That’s why I ran away to Tarshish. For I knew you were a gracious God, merciful, slow to get angry, and full of kindness; I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people.
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“Please kill me, Lord; I’d rather be dead than alive when nothing that I told them happens.
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”
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Then the Lord said, “Is it right to be
angry
about
this?”
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So Jonah went out and sat sulking
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on the east side of the city, and he made a leafy shelter to shade him as he waited there to see if anything would happen to the city.
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And when the leaves of the shelter withered in the heat, the Lord arranged for a vine to grow up quickly and spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head to shade him. This made him comfortable and very grateful.
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But God also prepared a worm! The next morning the worm ate through the stem of the plant, so that it withered away and died.
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Then when the sun was hot, God ordered a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah, and the sun beat down upon his head until he grew faint and wished to die. For he said, “Death is better than this!”
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And God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,” Jonah said, “it is; it is right for me to be angry enough to die!”
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Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry for yourself when your shelter is destroyed, though you did no work to put it there, and it is, at best, short-lived.
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And why shouldn’t I feel sorry for a great city like Nineveh with its 120,000 people in utter spiritual darkness
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and all its cattle?”
These are messages from the Lord to Micah, who lived in the town of Moresheth during the reigns of King Jotham, King Ahaz, and King Hezekiah, all kings of Judah. The messages were addressed to both Samaria and Judah and came to Micah in the form of visions.
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Attention! Let all the peoples of the world listen. For the Lord in his holy Temple has made accusations against you!
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Look! He is coming! He leaves his throne in heaven and comes to earth, walking on the mountaintops.
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They melt beneath his feet and flow into the valleys like wax in fire, like water pouring down a hill.
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And why is this happening? Because of the sins of Israel and Judah. What sins? The idolatry and oppression centering in the capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem!
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Therefore, the entire city of Samaria will crumble into a heap of rubble and become an open field, her streets plowed up for planting grapes! The Lord will tear down her wall and her forts, exposing their foundations, and pour their stones into the valleys below.
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All her carved images will be smashed to pieces; her ornate idol temples, built with the gifts of worshipers, will all be burned.
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I will wail and lament, howling as a jackal, mournful as an ostrich crying across the desert sands at night. I will walk naked and barefoot in sorrow and shame;
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for my people’s wound is far too deep to heal. The Lord stands ready at Jerusalem’s gates to punish her.
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Woe to the city of Gath. Weep, men of Bakah. In Beth-leaphrah roll in the dust in your anguish and shame.
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There go the people of Shaphir,
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led away as slaves—stripped, naked and ashamed. The people of Zaanan
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dare not show themselves outside their walls. The foundations of Beth-ezel
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are swept away—the very ground on which it stood.
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The people of Maroth vainly hope for better days, but only bitterness awaits them as the Lord stands poised against Jerusalem.
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Quick! Use your swiftest chariots and flee, O people of Lachish, for you were the first of the cities of Judah to follow Israel in her sin of idol worship. Then all the cities of the south began to follow your example.
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Write off Moresheth
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of Gath; there is no hope of saving her. The town of Achzib has deceived the kings of Israel, for she promised help she cannot give.
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You people of Mareshah will be a prize to your enemies. They will penetrate to Adullam, the “Pride of Israel.”
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Weep, weep for your little ones. For they are snatched away, and you will never see them again. They have gone as slaves to distant lands. Shave your heads in sorrow.
Woe to you who lie awake at night, plotting wickedness; you rise at dawn to carry out your schemes; because you can, you do.
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You want a certain piece of land or someone else’s house (though it is all he has); you take it by fraud and threats and violence.
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But the Lord God says, “I will reward your evil with evil; nothing can stop me; never again will you be proud and haughty after I am through with you.
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Then your enemies will taunt you and mock your dirge of despair: ‘We are finished, ruined. God has confiscated our land and sent us far away; he has given what is ours to others.’”
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Others will set your boundaries then. “The People of the Lord” will live where they are sent.
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“Don’t say such things,” the people say. “Don’t harp on things like that. It’s disgraceful, that sort of talk. Such evils surely will not come our way.”
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Is that the right reply for you to make, O House of Jacob? Do you think the Spirit of the Lord likes to talk to you so roughly? No! His threats are for your good, to get you on the path again.
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Yet to this very hour my people rise against me. For you steal the shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, who walk in peace.
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You have driven out the widows from their homes and stripped their children of every God-given right.
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Up! Begone! This is no more your land and home, for you have filled it with sin, and it will vomit you out.
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“I’ll preach to you the joys of wine and drink”—that is the kind of drunken, lying prophet that you like!
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“The time will come, O Israel, when I will gather you—all that are left—and bring you together again like sheep in a fold, like a flock in a pasture—a noisy, happy crowd.
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The Messiah
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will lead you out of exile and bring you through the gates of your cities of captivity, back to your own land. Your King will go before you—the Lord leads on.”
Listen, you leaders of Israel—you are supposed to know right from wrong,
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yet you are the very ones who hate good and love evil; you skin my people and strip them to the bone.
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You devour them, flog them, break their bones, and chop them up like meat for the cooking pot—
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and then you plead with the Lord for his help in times of trouble! Do you really expect him to listen? He will look the other way!
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You false prophets! You who lead his people astray! You who cry “Peace” to those who give you food and threaten those who will not pay!
This is God’s message to you:
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“The night will close about you and cut off all your visions; darkness will cover you with never a word from God. The sun will go down upon you, and your day will end.
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Then at last you will cover your faces in shame and admit that your messages were not from God.”
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But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, fearlessly announcing God’s punishment on Israel for her sins.
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Listen to me, you leaders of Israel who hate justice and love unfairness
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and fill Jerusalem with murder and sin of every kind—
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you leaders who take bribes; you priests and prophets who won’t preach and prophesy until you’re paid. (And yet you fawn upon the Lord and say, “All is well—the Lord is here among us. No harm can come to us.”)
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It is because of you that Jerusalem will be plowed like a field and become a heap of rubble; the mountaintop where the Temple stands will be overgrown with brush.