The Minor Prophets

Chapter 1

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

2 Hear this, O elders, give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your ancestors?

3 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

4 What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.

5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine-drinkers, over the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable; its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

7 It has laid waste my vines, and splintered my fig trees; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches have turned white.

8 Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord.

10 The fields are devastated, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails.

11 Be dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley; for the crops of the field are ruined.

12 The vine withers, the fig tree droops. Pomegranate, palm, and apple - all the trees of the field are dried up; surely, joy withers away among the people.

13 Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, pass the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! Grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

15 Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17 The seed shrivels under the clods, the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are ruined because the grain has failed.

18 How the animals groan! The herds of cattle wander about because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep are dazed.

19 To you, O Lord, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field.

20 Even the wild animals cry to you because the watercourses are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Chapter 2

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near -

2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

3 Fire devours in front of them, and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.

4 They have the appearance of horses, and like war-horses they charge.

5 As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle.

6 Before them peoples are in anguish, all faces grow pale.

7 Like warriors they charge, like soldiers they scale the wall. Each keeps to its own course, they do not swerve from their paths. 8 They do not jostle one another, each keeps to its own track; they burst through the weapons and are not halted.

9 They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.

10 The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

11 The Lord utters his voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host! Numberless are those who obey his command. Truly the day of the Lord is great; terrible indeed - who can endure it?

12 Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly;

16 gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.

17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep. Let them say, "Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

18 Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.

19 In response to his people the Lord said: I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a mockery among the nations.

20 I will remove the northern army far from you, and drive it into a parched and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its rear into the western sea; its stench and foul smell will rise up. Surely he has done great things!

21 Do nt fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things!

22 Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

23 O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before.

24 The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you.

26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

30 I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.

31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

32 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Chapter 3

1 For then, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations. They have divided my land,

3 and cast lots for my people, and traded boys for prostitutes, and sold girls for wine, and drunk it down.

4 What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads swiftly and speedily.

5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.

6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border.

7 But now I will rouse them to leave the places to which you have sold them, and I will turn your deeds back upon your own head.

8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away; for the Lord has spoken.

9 Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war, stir up the warriors. Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up.

10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, "I am a warrior."

11 Come quickly, all you nations all around, gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord.

12 Let the nations rouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the neighbouring nations.

13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

16 The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

17 So you shall know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.

18 In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water; a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Wadi Shittim.

19 Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they have shed innocent blood.

20 But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations.

21 I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty, for the Lord dwells in Zion.

Amos

Chapter 1

1 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 2 And he said: The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds wither, and the top of Carmel dries up.

3 Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.

4 So I will send a fire on the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.

5 I will break the gate bars of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and the one who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Aram shall go into exile to Kir, says the Lord.

6 Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they carried into exile entire communities, to hand them over to Edom.

7 So I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, fire that shall devour its strongholds.

8 I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord God.

9 Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they delivered entire communities over to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of kinship.

10 So I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, fire that shall devour its strongholds.

11 Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity; he maintained his anger perpetually, and kept his wrath forever.

12 So I will send a fire on Teman, and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.

13 Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for our, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.

14 So I will kindle a fire against the wall of Rabbah, fire that shall devour its strongholds, with shouting on the day of battle, with a storm on the day of the whirlwind;

15 then their king shall go into exile, he and his officials together, says the Lord.

Chapter 2

1 Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom.

2 So I will send a fire on Moab, and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth, and Moab shall die amid uproar, amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;

3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst, and will kill all its officials with him, says the Lord.

4 Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but they have been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked.

5 So I will send a fire on Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

Amos Denounces Injustice

6 Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals -

7 they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned;

8 they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed.

9 Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of cedars, and who was as strong as oaks; I destroyed his fruit above, and his roots beneath.

10 Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

11 And I raised up some of your children to be prophets and some of your youths to be nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel? says the Lord.

12 But you made the nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, "You shall not prophesy."

13 So, I will press you down in your place, just as a cart presses down when it is full of sheaves.

14 Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain their strength, nor shall the mighty save their lives;

15 those who handle the bow shall not stand, and those who are swift of foot shall not save themselves, nor shall those who ride horses save their lives;

16 and those who are stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, says the Lord.

Chapter 3

1 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

3 Do two walk together unless they have made an appointment?

4 Does a lion roar in the forest, when it has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from its den, if it has caught nothing?

5 Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?

6 Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster befall a city, unless the Lord has done it?

7 Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

8 The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?

9 Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod, and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, "Assemble yourselves on Mount Samaria, and see what great tumults are within it, and what oppressions are in its midst."

10 They do not know how to do right, says the Lord, those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.

11 Therefore thus says the Lord God: An adversary shall surround the land, and strip you of your defense; and your strongholds shall be plundered.

12 Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who live in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed.

13 Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of hosts:

14 On the day I punish Israel for its transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.

15 I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end, says the Lord.

Chapter 4

1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, "Bring something to drink!"

2 The Lord God has sworn by his holiness: The time is surely coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.

3 Through breaches in the wall you shall leave, each one straight ahead; and you shall be flung out into Harmon, says the Lord.

4 Come to Bethel - and transgress; to Gilgal - and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days;

5 bring a thank-offering of leavened bread, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel! says the Lord God.

6 I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.

7 And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and end no rain on another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered;

8 so two or three towns wandered to one town to drink water, and were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.

9 I struck you with blight and mildew; I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards; the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.

10 I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword; I carried away your horses; and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.

11 I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a brand snatched from the fire; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.

12 Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

13 For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth - the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Chapter 5

1 Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

2 Fallen, no more to rise, is maiden Israel; forsaken on her land, with no one to raise her up.

3 For thus says the Lord God: The city that marched out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which marched out a hundred shall have ten left.

4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek me and live;

5 but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing.

6 Seek the Lord and live, or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire, and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.

7 Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground!

8 The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name,

9 who makes destruction flash out against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

10 They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.

11 Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.

12 For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins - you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate.

13 Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said.

15 Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: In all the squares there shall be wailing; and in all the streets they shall say, "Alas! alas!" They shall call the farmers to mourning, and those skilled in lamentation, to wailing;

17 in all the vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord.

18 Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light;

19 as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake.

20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

21 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon.

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

24 But let justice roll downlike waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

25 Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

26 You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for yourselves;

27 therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

Chapter 6

1 Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria, the notables of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel resorts!

2 Cross over to Calneh, and see; from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is your territory greater than their territory,

3 O you that put far away the evil day, and bring near a reign of violence?

4 Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall;

5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music;

6 who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

7 Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

8 The Lord God has sworn by himself (says the Lord, the God of hosts): I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate is strongholds; and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.

9 If ten people remain in one house, they shall die.

10 And if a relative, one who burns the dead, shall take up the body to bring it out of the house, and shall say to someone in the innermost parts of the house, "Is anyone else with you?" the answer will come, "No." Then the relative shall say, "Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord."

11 See, the Lord commands, and the great house shall be shattered to bits, and the little house to pieces.

12 Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood -

13 you who rejoice in Lo-debar, who say, "Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?"

14 Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation, O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts, and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi Arabah.

Chapter 7

1 This is what the Lord God showed me: he was forming locusts at the time the latter growth began to sprout (it was the latter growth after the king's mowings).

2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, "O Lord God, forgive, I beg you! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!"

3 The Lord relented concerning this; "It shall not be," said the Lord.

4 This is what the Lord God showed me: the Lord God was calling for a shower of fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land.

5 Then I said, "O Lord God, cease, I beg you! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!"

6 The Lord relented concerning this; "This also shall not be," said the Lord God.

7 This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.

8 And the Lord said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; 79 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words.

11 For thus Amos has said, 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.'"

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there;

13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom."

14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees,

15 and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

16 "Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac."

17 Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'"

Chapter 8

1 This is what the Lord God showed me - a basket of summer fruit.

2 He said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the Lord said to me, The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by.

3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day," says the Lord God; "the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!"

4 Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

5 saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances,

6 buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat."

7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

8 Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

9 On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.

13 In that day the beautiful young women and the young men shall faint for thirst.

14 Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria, and say, "As your god lives, O Dan," and, "As the way of Beer-sheba lives" - they shall fall, and never rise again.

Chapter 9

1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said: Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away, not one of them shall escape.

2 Though they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down.

3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search out and take them; and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the sea-serpent, and it shall bite them.

4 And though they go into captivity in front of their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good.

5 The Lord, God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;

6 who builds his upper chambers in he heavens, and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the surface of the earth - the Lord is his name.

7 Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?

8 The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth - except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord.

9 For lo, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the ground.

10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, "Evil shall not overtake or meet us."

11 On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old;

12 in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the Lord who does this.

13 The time is surely coming, says the Lord, when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps, and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.

14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

15 I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God.

Obadiah

1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom: We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: "Rise up! Let us rise against it for battle!" 2 I will surely make you least among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.

3 Your proud heart has deceived you, you that live in the clefts of the rock, whose dwelling is in the heights. You say in your heart, "Who will bring me down to the ground?"

4 Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord.

5 If thieves came to you, if plunderers by night - how you have been destroyed! - would they not steal only what they wanted? If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings?

6 How Esau has been pillaged, his treasures searched out!

7 All your allies have deceived you, they have driven you to the border; your confederates have prevailed against you; those who ate your bread have set a trap for you - there is no understanding of it.

8 On that day, says the Lord, I will destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of Mount Esau.

9 Your warriors shall be shattered, O Teman, so that everyone from Mount Esau will be cut off.

10 For the slaughter and violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.

11 On the day that you stood aside, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you too were like one of them.

12 But you should not have gloated over your brother on the day of his misfortune; you should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah on the day of their ruin; you should not have boasted on the day of distress.

13 You should not have entered the gate of my people on the day of their calamity; you should not have joined in the gloating over Judah's disaster on the day of his calamity; you should not have looted his goods on the day of his calamity.

14 You should not have stood at the crossings to cut off his fugitives; you should not have handed over his survivors on the day of distress.

15 For the day of the Lord is near against all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head.

16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, all the nations around you shall drink; they shall drink and gulp down, and shall be as though they had never been.

17 But on Mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall take possession of those who dispossessed them.

18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor of the house of Esau; for the Lord has spoken.

19 Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

20 The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah shall possess Phoenicia as far as Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the towns of the Negeb.

21 Those who have been saved shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

Jonah

Chapter 1

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,

2 "Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me."

3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up.

5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep.

6 The captain came and said to him, "What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish."

Jonah and the Whale

7 The sailors said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

8 Then they said to him, "Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?"

9 "I am a Hebrew," he replied. "I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."

10 Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.

11 Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous.

12 He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you."

13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more an more stormy against them.

14 Then they cried out to the Lord, "Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you."

15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging.

16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

17 But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Chapter 2

1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,

2 saying, "I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.

3 You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.

4 Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?'

5 The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head

6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God.

7 As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.

8 Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.

9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!"

10 Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.

Chapter 3

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying,

2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."

3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across.

4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water.

8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands.

9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish."

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Chapter 4

1 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.

2 He prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.

3 And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

4 And the Lord said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.

6 The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush.

7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered.

8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east win, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

9 But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die."

10 Then the Lord said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night.

11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

Micah

Chapter 1

1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; listen, O earth, and all that is in it; and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

3 For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

4 Then the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will burst open, like wax near the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.

5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?

6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour down her stones into the valley, and uncover her foundations.

7 All her images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned wit fire, and all her idols I will lay waste; for as the wages of a prostitute she gathered them, and as the wages of a prostitute they shall again be used.

8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go barefoot and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.

9 For her wound is incurable. It has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.

10 Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all; in Beth-leaphrah roll yourselves in the dust.

11 Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come forth; Beth-ezel is wailing and shall remove its support from you.

12 For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good, yet disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.

13 Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish; it was the beginning of sin to daughter Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel.

14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moreshth-gath; the houses of Achzib shall be a deception to the kings of Israel.

15 I will again bring a conqueror upon you, inhabitants of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.

16 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair for your pampered children; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they have gone from you into exile.

Chapter 2

1 Alas for those who devise wickedness and evil deeds on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in their power.

2 They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the Lord: Now, I am devising against this family an evil from which you cannot remove your necks; and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be an evil time.

4 On that day they shall take up a taunt song against you, and wail with bitter lamentation, and say, "We are utterly ruined; the Lord alters the inheritance of my people; how he removes it from me! Among our captors he parcels out our fields."

5 Therefore you will have no one to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

6 "Do not preach" - thus they preach - "one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us."

7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Is the Lord's patience exhausted? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to one who walks uprightly?

8 But you rise up against my people as an enemy; you strip the robe from the peaceful, from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war.

9 The women of my people you drive out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my glory forever.

10 Arise and go; for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction.

11 If someone were to go about uttering empty falsehoods, saying, "I will preach to you of wine and strong drink," such a one would be the preacher for this people!

12 I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob, I will gather the survivors of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture; it will resound with people.

13 The one who breaks out will go up before them; they will break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king will pass on before them, the Lord at their head.

Chapter 3

1 And I said: Listen, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Should you not know justice? -

2 you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin off my people, and the flesh off their bones;

3 who eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron.

4 Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have acted wickedly.

5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths.

6 Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without revelation. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them;

7 the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. 38 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity,

10 who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong!

11 Its rulers give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the Lord and say, "Surely the Lord is with us! No harm shall come upon us."

12 Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Chapter 4

1 In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it,

2 and many nations shall come and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more;

4 but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

5 For all the peoples walk, each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

6 In that day, says the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away, and those whom I have afflicted.

7 The lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion now and forevermore.

8 And you, O tower of the flock, hill of daughter Zion, to you it shall come, the former dominion shall come, the sovereignty of daughter Jerusalem.

9 Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pangs have seized you like a woman in labor?

10 Writhe and groan, O daughter Zion, like a woman in labor; for now you shall go forth from the city and camp in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued, there the Lord will redeem you from the hands of your enemies.

11 Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, "Let her be profaned, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion."

12 But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.

13 Arise and thresh, O daughter Zion, for I will make your horn iron and your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples, and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

Chapter 5

1 Now you are walled around with a wall; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel upon the cheek.

2 But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.

3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel.

4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth;

5 and he shall be the one of peace. If the Assyrians come into our land and tread upon our soil, we will raise against them seven shepherds and eight installed as rulers.

6 They shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword; they shall rescue us from the Assyrians if they come into or land or tread within our border.

7 Then the remnant of Jacob, surrounded by many peoples, shall be like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which do not depend upon people or wait for any mortal.

8 And among the nations the remnant of Jacob, surrounded by many peoples, shall be like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, with no one to deliver.

9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.

10 In that day, says the Lord, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots;

11 and I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds;

12 and I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more soothsayers;

13 and I will cut off your images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands;

14 and I will uproot your sacred poles from among you and destroy your towns.

15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey.

Chapter 6

1 Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.

3 "O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!

4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord."

6 "With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"

Three Things the Lord Requires

8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city (it is sound wisdom to fear your name): Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!

10 Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed?

11 Can I tolerate wicked scales and a bag of dishonest weights?

12 Your wealthy are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, with tongues of deceit in their mouths.

13 Therefore I have begun to strike you down, making you desolate because of your sins.

14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you; you shall put away, but not save, and what you save, I will hand over to the sword.

15 You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.

16 For you have keptthe statutes of Omri and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you have followed their counsels. Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants an object of hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.

Chapter 7

1 Woe is me! For I have become like one who, after the summer fruit has been gathered, after the vintage has been gleaned, finds no cluster to eat; there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger.

2 The faithful have disappeared from the land, and there is no one left who is upright; they all lie in wait for blood, and they hunt each other with nets.

3 Their hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe, and the powerful dictate what they desire; thus they pervert justice.

4 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of their sentinels, of their punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand.

5 Put no trust in a friend, have no confidence in a loved one; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your embrace;

6 for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; your enemies are members of your own household.

7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

8 Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

9 I must bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he takes my side and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall see his vindication.

10 Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, "Where is the Lord your God?" My eyes will see her downfall; now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets.

11 A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended.

12 In that day they will come to you from Assyria to Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

13 But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their doings.

14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that belongs to you, which lives alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old.

15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, show us marvelous things.

16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf;

17 they shall lick dust like a snake, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their fortresses; they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall stand in fear of you.

18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency.

19 He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and unswerving loyalty to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.

Nahum

Chapter 1

1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies.

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, and the bloom of Lebanon fades.

5 The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who live in it.

6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.

7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him,

8 even in a rushing flood. He will make a full end of his adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

9 Why do you plot against the Lord? He will make an end; no adversary will rise up twice.

10 Like thorns they are entangled, like drunkards they are drunk; they are consumed like dry straw.

11 From you one has gone out who plots evil against the Lord, who counsels wickedness.

12 Thus says the Lord, "Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

13 And now I will break off his yoke from you and snap the bonds that bind you."

14 The Lord has commanded concerning you: "Your name shall be perpetuated no longer; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the cast image. I will make your grave, for you are worthless."

15 Look! On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked invade you; they are utterly cut off.

Chapter 2

1 A shatterer has come up against you. Guard the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.

2 (For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined their branches.)

3 The shields of his warriors are red; his soldiers are clothed in crimson. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day when he musters them; the chargers prance.

4 The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; their appearance is like torches, they dart like lightning.

5 He calls his officers; they stumble as they come forward; they hasten to the wall, and the mantelet is set up.

6 The river gates are opened, the palace trembles.

7 It is decreed that the city be exiled, its slave women led away, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.

8 Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!" - but no one turns back.

9 "Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of treasure! An abundance of every precious thing!"

10 Devastation, desolation, and destruction! Hearts faint and knees tremble, all loins quake, all faces grow pale!

11 What became of the lions' den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion goes, and the lion's cubs, with no one to disturb them?

12 The lion has torn enough for his whelps and strangled prey for his lionesses; he has filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

13 See, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.

Chapter 3

1 Ah! City of bloodshed, utterly deceitful, full of booty - no end to the plunder!

2 The crack of whip and rumble of wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!

3 Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, piles of dead, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end - they stumble over the bodies!

4 Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute, gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery, who enslaves nations through her debaucheries, and peoples through her sorcery,

5 I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will let nations look on your nakedness and kingdoms on your shame.

6 I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt, and make you a spectacle.

7 Then all who see you will shrink from you and say, "Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?" Where shall I seek comforters for you?

8 Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, water her wall?

9 Ethiopia was er strength, Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers.

10 Yet she became an exile, she went into captivity; even her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; lots were cast for her nobles, all her dignitaries were bound in fetters.

11 You also will be drunken, you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy.

12 All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs - if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.

13 Look at your troops: they are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your foes; fire has devoured the bars of your gates.

14 Draw water for the siege, strengthen your forts; trample the clay, tread the mortar, take hold of the brick mold!

15 There the fire will devour you, the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust, multiply like the grasshopper!

16 You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust sheds its skin and flies away.

17 Your guards are like grasshoppers, your scribes like swarms of locusts settling on the fences on a cold day - when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they have gone.

18 Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.

19 There is no assuaging your hurt, your wound is mortal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For who has ever escaped your endless cruelty?

Habakkuk

Chapter 1

1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?

3 Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.

4 So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous - therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

5 Look at the nations, and see! Be astonished! Be astounded! For a work is being done in your days that you would not believe if you were told.

6 For I am rousing the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

7 Dread and fearsome are they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.

8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more menacing than wolves at dusk; their horses charge. Their horsemen come from far away; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.

9 They all come for violence, with faces pressing forward; they gather captives like sand.

10 At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth to take it.

11 Then they sweep by like the wind; they transgress and become guilty; their own might is their god!

12 Are you not from of old, O Lord my God, my Holy One? You shall not die. O Lord, you have marked them for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.

13 Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing; why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?

14 You have made people like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.

15 The enemy brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his net; so he rejoices and exults.

16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his net; for by them his portion is lavish, and his food is rich.

17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and destroying nations without mercy?

Chapter 2

1 I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.

2 Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.

3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.

4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.

5 Moreover, wealth is treacherous; the arrogant do not endure. They open their throats wide as Sheol; like Death they never have enough. They gather all nations for themselves, and collect all peoples as their own.

6 Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them, "Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!" How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?

7 Will not your own creditors suddenly rise, and those who make you tremble wake up? Then you will be booty for them.

8 Because you have plundered many nations, all that survive of the peoples shall plunder you - because of human bloodshed, and violence to the earth, to cities and all who live in them.

9 "Alas for you who get evil gain for your houses, setting your nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm!"

10 You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life.

11 The very stones will cry out from the wall, and the plaster will respond from the woodwork.

12 "Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed, and found a city on iniquity!"

13 Is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor only to feed the flames, and nations weary themselves for nothing?

14 But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

15 "Alas for you who make your neighbours drink, pouring out your wrath until they are drunk, in order to gaze on their nakedness!" 16 You will be sated with contempt instead of glory. Drink, you yourself, and stagger! The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory!

17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of the animals will terrify you - because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth, to cities and all who live in them.

18 What use is an idol once its maker has shaped it - a cast image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in what has been made, though the product is only an idol that cannot speak!

19 Alas for you who say to the wood, "Wake up!" to silent stone, "Rouse yourself!" Can it teach? See, it is gold and silver plated, and there is no breath in it at all.

20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!

Chapter 3

1 A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk according to Shigionoth.

2 O Lord, I have heard of your renown, and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work. In our own time revive it; in our own time make it known; in wrath may you remember mercy.

3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

4 The brightness was like the sun; rays came forth from his hand, where his power lay hidden.

5 Before him went pestilence, and plague followed close behind.

6 He stopped and shook the earth; he looked and made the nations tremble. The eternal mountains were shattered; along his ancient pathways the everlasting hills sank low.

7 I saw the tents of Cushan under affliction; the tent-curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Or your anger against the rivers, or your rage against the sea, when you drove your horses, your chariots to victory?

9 You brandished your naked bow, sated were the arrows at your command. Selah You split the earth with rivers.

10 The mountains saw you, and writhed; a torrent of water swept by; the deep gave forth its voice. The sun raised high its hands;

11 the moon stood still in its exalted place, at the light of your arrows speeding by, at the gleam of your flashing spear.

12 In fury you trod the earth, in anger you trampled nations.

13 You came forth to save your people, to save your anointed. You crushed the head of the wicked house, laying it bare from foundation to roof. Selah

14 You pierced with his own arrows the head of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter us, gloating as if ready to devour the poor who were in hiding.

15 You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the mighty waters.

16 I hear, and I tremble within; my lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones, and my steps tremble beneath me. I wait quietly for the day of calamity to come upon the people who attack us.

17 Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls,

18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.

19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Zephaniah