Jonah 2

At the Bottom of the Sea

1-9 Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish.

He prayed:

“In trouble, deep trouble, I prayed toGod.

He answered me.

From the belly of the grave I cried, ‘Help!’

You heard my cry.

You threw me into ocean’s depths,

into a watery grave,

With ocean waves, ocean breakers

crashing over me.

I said, ‘I’ve been thrown away,

thrown out, out of your sight.

I’ll never again lay eyes

on your Holy Temple.’

Ocean gripped me by the throat.

The ancient Abyss grabbed me and held tight.

My head was all tangled in seaweed

at the bottom of the sea where the mountains take root.

I was as far down as a body can go,

and the gates were slamming shut behind me forever—

Yet you pulled me up from that grave alive,

OGod, my God!

When my life was slipping away,

I rememberedGod,

And my prayer got through to you,

made it all the way to your Holy Temple.

Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds,

walk away from their only true love.

But I’m worshiping you,God,

calling out in thanksgiving!

And I’ll do what I promised I’d do!

Salvation belongs toGod!”

10 ThenGodspoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JON/2-a5e79c477897cadd5d086aafa50603c2.mp3?version_id=97—

Jonah 3

Maybe God Will Change His Mind

1-2 Next,Godspoke to Jonah a second time: “Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They’re in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.”

3 This time Jonah started off straight for Nineveh, obeyingGod’s orders to the letter.

Nineveh was a big city, very big—it took three days to walk across it.

4 Jonah entered the city, went one day’s walk and preached, “In forty days Nineveh will be smashed.”

5 The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God. They proclaimed a citywide fast and dressed in burlap to show their repentance. Everyone did it—rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers.

6-9 When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up off his throne, threw down his royal robes, dressed in burlap, and sat down in the dirt. Then he issued a public proclamation throughout Nineveh, authorized by him and his leaders: “Not one drop of water, not one bite of food for man, woman, or animal, including your herds and flocks! Dress them all, both people and animals, in burlap, and send up a cry for help to God. Everyone must turn around, turn back from an evil life and the violent ways that stain their hands. Who knows? Maybe God will turn around and change his mind about us, quit being angry with us and let us live!”

10 God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. Hedidchange his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn’t do.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JON/3-3a01fada9364e0205d03b4dec6406874.mp3?version_id=97—

Jonah 4

“I Knew This Was Going to Happen!”

1-2 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled atGod, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!

3 “So,God, if you won’t kill them, killme! I’m better off dead!”

4 Godsaid, “What do you have to be angry about?”

5 But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.

6 Godarranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.

7-8 But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”

9 Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”

Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!”

10-11 Godsaid, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JON/4-4169527722a3d7cb642ae83180733b59.mp3?version_id=97—

Obadiah 1

Your World Will Collapse

1 Obadiah’s Message to Edom

fromGod, the Master.

We got the news straight fromGod

by a special messenger sent out to the godless nations:

“On your feet, prepare for battle;

get ready to make war on Edom!

2-4 “Listen to this, Edom:

I’m turning you to a no-account,

the runt of the godless nations, despised.

You thought you were so great,

perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain,

Thinking to yourself,

‘Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!’

Think again. Even if, like an eagle,

you hang out on a high cliff-face,

Even if you build your nest in the stars,

I’ll bring you down to earth.”

God’s sure Word.

5-14 “If thieves crept up on you,

they’d rob you blind—isn’t that so?

If they mugged you on the streets at night,

they’d pick you clean—isn’t that so?

Oh, they’ll take Esau apart, piece by piece,

empty his purse and pockets.

All your old partners will drive you to the edge.

Your old friends will lie to your face.

Your old drinking buddies will stab you in the back.

Your world will collapse. You won’t know what hit you.

So don’t be surprised”—it’sGod’s sure Word!—

“when I wipe out all sages from Edom

and rid the Esau mountains of its famous wise men.

Your great heroes will desert you, Teman.

There’ll be nobody left in Esau’s mountains.

Because of the murderous history compiled

against your brother Jacob,

You will be looked down on by everyone.

You’ll lose your place in history.

On that day you stood there and didn’t do anything.

Strangers took your brother’s army into exile.

Godless foreigners invaded and pillaged Jerusalem.

You stood there and watched.

You were as bad as they were.

You shouldn’t have gloated over your brother

when he was down-and-out.

You shouldn’t have laughed and joked at Judah’s sons

when they were facedown in the mud.

You shouldn’t have talked so big

when everything was so bad.

You shouldn’t have taken advantage of my people

when their lives had fallen apart.

You of all people should not have been amused

by their troubles, their wrecked nation.

You shouldn’t have taken the shirt off their back

when they were knocked flat, defenseless.

And you shouldn’t have stood waiting at the outskirts

and cut off refugees,

And traitorously turned in helpless survivors

who had lost everything.

15-18 “God’s Judgment Day is near

for all the godless nations.

As you have done, it will be done to you.

What you did will boomerang back

and hit your own head.

Just as you partied on my holy mountain,

all the godless nations will drink God’s wrath.

They’ll drink and drink and drink—

they’ll drink themselves to death.

But not so on Mount Zion—there’s respite there!

a safe and holy place!

The family of Jacob will take back their possessions

from those who took them from them.

That’s when the family of Jacob will catch fire,

the family of Joseph become fierce flame,

while the family of Esau will be straw.

Esau will go up in flames,

nothing left of Esau but a pile of ashes.”

Godsaid it, and it is so.

19-21 People from the south will take over the Esau mountains;

people from the foothills will overrun the Philistines.

They’ll take the farms of Ephraim and Samaria,

and Benjamin will take Gilead.

Earlier, Israelite exiles will come back

and take Canaanite land to the north at Zarephath.

Jerusalem exiles from the far northwest in Sepharad

will come back and take the cities in the south.

The remnant of the saved in Mount Zion

will go into the mountains of Esau

And rule justly and fairly,

a rule that honorsGod’s kingdom.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/OBA/1-4ed1a5f35b40a95708afbe380a524e08.mp3?version_id=97—

Amos 1

1 The Message of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa, that he received on behalf of Israel. It came to him in visions during the time that Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam II son of Joash was king of Israel, two years before the big earthquake.

Swallowing the Same Old Lies

2 The Message:

Godroars from Zion,

shouts from Jerusalem!

The thunderclap voice withers the pastures tended by shepherds,

shrivels Mount Carmel’s proud peak.

3-5 God’s Message:

“Because of the three great sins of Damascus

—make that four—I’m not putting up with her any longer.

She pounded Gilead to a pulp, pounded her senseless

with iron hammers and mauls.

For that, I’m setting the palace of Hazael on fire.

I’m torching Ben-hadad’s forts.

I’m going to smash the Damascus gates

and banish the crime king who lives in Sin Valley,

the vice boss who gives orders from Paradise Palace.

The people of the land will be sent back

to where they came from—to Kir.”

God’s Decree.

6-8 God’s Message:

“Because of the three great sins of Gaza

—make that four—I’m not putting up with her any longer.

She deported whole towns

and then sold the people to Edom.

For that, I’m burning down the walls of Gaza,

burning up all her forts.

I’ll banish the crime king from Ashdod,

the vice boss from Ashkelon.

I’ll raise my fist against Ekron,

and what’s left of the Philistines will die.”

God’s Decree.

9-10 God’s Message:

“Because of the three great sins of Tyre

—make that four—I’m not putting up with her any longer.

She deported whole towns to Edom,

breaking the treaty she had with her kin.

For that, I’m burning down the walls of Tyre,

burning up all her forts.”

11-12 God’s Message:

“Because of the three great sins of Edom

—make that four—I’m not putting up with her any longer.

She hunts down her brother to murder him.

She has no pity, she has no heart.

Her anger rampages day and night.

Her meanness never takes a timeout.

For that, I’m burning down her capital, Teman,

burning up the forts of Bozrah.”

13-15 God’s Message:

“Because of the three great sins of Ammon

—make that four—I’m not putting up with her any longer.

She ripped open pregnant women in Gilead

to get more land for herself.

For that, I’m burning down the walls of her capital, Rabbah,

burning up her forts.

Battle shouts! War whoops!

with a tornado to finish things off!

The king has been carted off to exile,

the king and his princes with him.”

God’s Decree.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/AMO/1-55f2cba94383ef99dadef3b1aed4d168.mp3?version_id=97—

Amos 2

1-3 God’s Message:

“Because of the three great sins of Moab

—make that four—I’m not putting up with her any longer.

She violated the corpse of Edom’s king,

burning it to cinders.

For that, I’m burning down Moab,

burning down the forts of Kerioth.

Moab will die in the shouting,

go out in the blare of war trumpets.

I’ll remove the king from the center

and kill all his princes with him.”

God’s Decree.

4-5 God’s Message:

“Because of the three great sins of Judah

—make that four—I’m not putting up with them any longer.

They rejectedGod’s revelation,

refused to keep my commands.

But they swallowed the same old lies

that got their ancestors onto dead-end roads.

For that, I’m burning down Judah,

burning down all the forts of Jerusalem.”

Destroyed from the Roots Up

6-8 God’s Message:

“Because of the three great sins of Israel

—make that four—I’m not putting up with them any longer.

They buy and sell upstanding people.

People for them are onlythings—ways of making money.

They’d sell a poor man for a pair of shoes.

They’d sell their own grandmother!

They grind the penniless into the dirt,

shove the luckless into the ditch.

Everyone and his brother sleeps with the ‘sacred whore’—

a sacrilege against my Holy Name.

Stuff they’ve extorted from the poor

is piled up at the shrine of their god,

While they sit around drinking wine

they’ve conned from their victims.

9-11 “In contrast, I was always on your side.

I destroyed the Amorites who confronted you,

Amorites with the stature of great cedars,

tough as thick oaks.

I destroyed them from the top branches down.

I destroyed them from the roots up.

And yes, I’m the One who delivered you from Egypt,

led you safely through the wilderness for forty years

And then handed you the country of the Amorites

like a piece of cake on a platter.

I raised up some of your young men to be prophets,

set aside your best youth for training in holiness.

Isn’t this so, Israel?”

God’s Decree.

12-13 “But you made the youth-in-training break training,

and you told the young prophets, ‘Don’t prophesy!’

You’re too much for me.

I’m hard-pressed—to the breaking point.

I’m like a wagon piled high and overloaded,

creaking and groaning.

14-16 “When I go into action, what will you do?

There’s no place to run no matter how fast you run.

The strength of the strong won’t count.

Fighters won’t make it.

Skilled archers won’t make it.

Fast runners won’t make it.

Chariot drivers won’t make it.

Even the bravest of all your warriors

Won’t make it.

He’ll run off for dear life, stripped naked.”

God’s Decree.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/AMO/2-3ae194094c3a88496b337dd3c8c414df.mp3?version_id=97—

Amos 3

The Lion Has Roared

1 Listen to this, Israel.Godis calling you to account—and I meanallof you, everyone connected with the family that he delivered out of Egypt. Listen!

2 “Out of all the families on earth,

I pickedyou.

Therefore, because of your special calling,

I’m holding you responsible for all your sins.”

3-7 Do two people walk hand in hand

if they aren’t going to the same place?

Does a lion roar in the forest

if there’s no carcass to devour?

Does a young lion growl with pleasure

if he hasn’t caught his supper?

Does a bird fall to the ground

if it hasn’t been hit with a stone?

Does a trap spring shut

if nothing trips it?

When the alarm goes off in the city,

aren’t people alarmed?

And when disaster strikes the city,

doesn’tGodstand behind it?

The fact is,God, the Master, does nothing

without first telling his prophets the whole story.

8 The lion has roared—

who isn’t frightened?

Godhas spoken—

what prophet can keep quiet?

9-11 Announce to the forts of Assyria,

announce to the forts of Egypt—

Tell them, “Gather on the Samaritan mountains, take a good, hard look:

what a snake pit of brutality and terror!

They can’t—or won’t—do one thing right.”Godsaid so.

“They stockpile violence and blight.

Therefore”—this isGod’s Word—“an enemy will surround the country.

He’ll strip you of your power and plunder your forts.”

12 God’s Message:

“In the same way that a shepherd

trying to save a lamb from a lion

Manages to recover

just a pair of legs or the scrap of an ear,

So will little be saved of the Israelites

who live in Samaria—

A couple of old chairs at most,

the broken leg of a table.

13-15 “Listen and bring witness against Jacob’s family”—

this is God’s Word,God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

“Note well! The day I make Israel pay for its sins,

pay for the sin-altars of worship at Bethel,

The horned altars will all be dehorned

and scattered around.

I’ll tear down the winter palace,

smash the summer palace—all your fancy buildings.

The luxury homes will be demolished,

all those pretentious houses.”

God’s Decree.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/AMO/3-a20dbaec313ae55f87f29a889cc4ca2d.mp3?version_id=97—

Amos 4

You Never Got Hungry for God

1 “Listen to this, you cows of Bashan

grazing on the slopes of Samaria.

You women! Mean to the poor,

cruel to the down-and-out!

Indolent and pampered, you demand of your husbands,

‘Bring us a tall, cool drink!’

2-3 “This is serious—I,God, have sworn by my holiness!

Be well warned: Judgment Day is coming!

They’re going to rope you up and haul you off,

keep the stragglers in line with cattle prods.

They’ll drag you through the ruined city walls,

forcing you out single file,

And kick you to kingdom come.”

God’s Decree.

4-5 “Come along to Bethel and sin!

And then to Gilgal and sin some more!

Bring your sacrifices for morning worship.

Every third day bring your tithe.

Burn pure sacrifices—thank offerings.

Speak up—announce freewill offerings!

That’s the sort of religious show

you Israelites just love.”

God’s Decree.

6 “You know, don’t you, that I’m the One

who emptied your pantries and cleaned out your cupboards,

Who left you hungry and standing in bread lines?

But you never got hungry for me. You continued to ignore me.”

God’s Decree.

7-8 “Yes, and I’m the One who stopped the rains

three months short of harvest.

I’d make it rain on one village

but not on another.

I’d make it rain on one field

but not on another—and that one would dry up.

People would stagger from village to village

crazed for water and never quenching their thirst.

But you never got thirsty for me.

You ignored me.”

God’s Decree.

9 “I hit your crops with disease

and withered your orchards and gardens.

Locusts devoured your olive and fig trees,

but you continued to ignore me.”

God’s Decree.

10 “I revisited you with the old Egyptian plagues,

killed your choice young men and prize horses.

The stink of rot in your camps was so strong

that you held your noses—

But you didn’t notice me.

You continued to ignore me.”

God’s Decree.

11 “I hit you with earthquake and fire,

left you devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah.

You were like a burning stick

snatched from the flames.

But you never looked my way.

You continued to ignore me.”

God’s Decree.

12 “All this I have done to you, Israel,

and this is why I have done it.

Time’s up, O Israel!

Prepare to meet your God!”

13 Look who’s here: Mountain-Shaper! Wind-Maker!

He laid out the whole plot before Adam.

He brings everything out of nothing,

like dawn out of darkness.

He strides across the alpine ridges.

His name isGod, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/AMO/4-3aeff08991848a98e4ecb6adbdc14b27.mp3?version_id=97—

Amos 5

All Show, No Substance

1 Listen to this, family of Israel,

this Message I’m sending in bold print, this tragic warning:

2 “Virgin Israel has fallen flat on her face.

She’ll never stand up again.

She’s been left where she’s fallen.

No one offers to help her up.”

3 This is the Message,God’s Word:

“The city that marches out with a thousand

will end up with a hundred.

The city that marches out with a hundred

will end up with ten. Oh, family of Israel!”

4-5 God’s Message to the family of Israel:

“Seek me and live.

Don’t fool around at those shrines of Bethel,

Don’t waste time taking trips to Gilgal,

and don’t bother going down to Beer-sheba.

Gilgal is here today and gone tomorrow

and Bethel is all show, no substance.”

6 So seekGodand live! You don’t want to end up

with nothing to show for your life

But a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground.

For God will send just such a fire,

and the firefighters will show up too late.

Raw Truth Is Never Popular

7-9 Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar

and stomp righteousness into the mud.

Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmos

star-flung with constellations by God,

A world God wakes up each morning

and puts to bed each night.

God dips water from the ocean

and gives the land a drink.

God, God-revealed, does all this.

And he can destroy it as easily as make it.

He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.

10-12 People hate this kind of talk.

Raw truth is never popular.

But here it is, bluntly spoken:

Because you run roughshod over the poor

and take the bread right out of their mouths,

You’re never going to move into

the luxury homes you have built.

You’re never going to drink wine

from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.

I know precisely the extent of your violations,

the enormity of your sins. Appalling!

You bully right-living people,

taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.

13 Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.

Decent people throw up their hands.

Protest and rebuke are useless,

a waste of breath.

14 Seek good and not evil—

and live!

You talk aboutGod, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

being your best friend.

Well,livelike it,

and maybe it will happen.

15 Hate evil and love good,

then work it out in the public square.

MaybeGod, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

will notice your remnant and be gracious.

16-17 Now again, my Master’s Message,God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Go out into the streets and lament loudly!

Fill the malls and shops with cries of doom!

Weep loudly, ‘Not me! Not us, Not now!’

Empty offices, stores, factories, workplaces.

Enlist everyone in the general lament.

I want to hear it loud and clear when I make my visit.”

God’s Decree.

Time to Face Hard Reality, Not Fantasy

18-20 Woe to all of you who wantGod’s Judgment Day!

Why would you want to seeGod, want him to come?

WhenGodcomes, it will be bad news before it’s good news,

the worst of times, not the best of times.

Here’s what it’s like: A man runs from a lion

right into the jaws of a bear.

A woman goes home after a hard day’s work

and is raped by a neighbor.

AtGod’s coming we face hard reality, not fantasy—

a black cloud with no silver lining.

21-24 “I can’t stand your religious meetings.

I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.

I want nothing to do with your religion projects,

your pretentious slogans and goals.

I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,

your public relations and image making.

I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.

When was the last time you sang tome?

Do you know what I want?

I want justice—oceans of it.

I want fairness—rivers of it.

That’s what I want. That’sallI want.

25-27 “Didn’t you, dear family of Israel, worship me faithfully for forty years in the wilderness, bringing the sacrifices and offerings I commanded? How is it you’ve stooped to dragging gimcrack statues of your so-called rulers around, hauling the cheap images of all your star-gods here and there? Since you like them so much, you can take them with you when I drive you into exile beyond Damascus.”God’s Message, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/AMO/5-4614016a16382a1d48fb2efa4655c70f.mp3?version_id=97—

Amos 6

Those Who Live Only for Today

1-2 Woe to you who think you live on easy street in Zion,

who think Mount Samaria is the good life.

You assume you’re at the top of the heap,

voted the number-one best place to live.

Well, wake up and look around. Get off your pedestal.

Take a look at Calneh.

Go and visit Great Hamath.

Look in on Gath of the Philistines.

Doesn’t that take you off your high horse?

Compared to them, you’re not much, are you?

3-6 Woe to you who are rushing headlong to disaster!

Catastrophe is just around the corner!

Woe to those who live in luxury

and expect everyone else to serve them!

Woe to those who live only for today,

indifferent to the fate of others!

Woe to the playboys, the playgirls,

who think life is a party held just for them!

Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain!

those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles!

They could not care less

about their country going to ruin.

7 But here’s what’sreallycoming:

a forced march into exile.

They’ll leave the country whining,

a rag-tag bunch of good-for-nothings.

You’ve Made a Shambles of Justice

8 God, the Master, has sworn, and solemnly stands by his Word.

The God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:

“I hate the arrogance of Jacob.

I have nothing but contempt for his forts.

I’m about to hand over the city

and everyone in it.”

9-10 Ten men are in a house, all dead. A relative comes and gets the bodies to prepare them for a decent burial. He discovers a survivor huddled in a closet and asks, “Are there any more?” The answer: “Not a soul. But hush!Godmust not be mentioned in this desecrated place.”

11 Note well:Godissues the orders.

He’ll knock large houses to smithereens.

He’ll smash little houses to bits.

12-13 Do you hold a horse race in a field of rocks?

Do you plow the sea with oxen?

You’d cripple the horses

and drown the oxen.

And yet you’ve made a shambles of justice,

a bloated corpse of righteousness,

Bragging of your trivial pursuits,

beating up on the weak and crowing, “Look what I’ve done!”

14 “Enjoy it while you can, you Israelites.

I’ve got a pagan army on the move against you”

—this is yourGodspeaking, God-of-the-Angel-Armies—

“And they’ll make hash of you,

from one end of the country to the other.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/AMO/6-c1143e443205f5aca0eb545c063609da.mp3?version_id=97—