聖經365恩典之旅

 

Obadiah’s Vision

1 The vision of Obadiah.

 

This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom—

 

We have heard a message from the Lord:

    An envoy was sent to the nations to say,

“Rise, let us go against her for battle”—

2 “See, I will make you small among the nations;

    you will be utterly despised.

3 The pride of your heart has deceived you,

    you who live in the clefts of the rocks[a]

    and make your home on the heights,

you who say to yourself,

    ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

4 Though you soar like the eagle

    and make your nest among the stars,

    from there I will bring you down,”

declares the Lord.

5 “If thieves came to you,

    if robbers in the night—

oh, what a disaster awaits you!—

    would they not steal only as much as they wanted?

If grape pickers came to you,

    would they not leave a few grapes?

6 But how Esau will be ransacked,

    his hidden treasures pillaged!

7 All your allies will force you to the border;

    your friends will deceive and overpower you;

those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,[b]

    but you will not detect it.

8 “In that day,” declares the Lord,

    “will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,

    those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

9 Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,

    and everyone in Esau’s mountains

    will be cut down in the slaughter.

10 Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,

    you will be covered with shame;

    you will be destroyed forever.

11 On the day you stood aloof

    while strangers carried off his wealth

and foreigners entered his gates

    and cast lots for Jerusalem,

    you were like one of them.

12 You should not gloat over your brother

    in the day of his misfortune,

nor rejoice over the people of Judah

    in the day of their destruction,

nor boast so much

    in the day of their trouble.

13 You should not march through the gates of my people

    in the day of their disaster,

nor gloat over them in their calamity

    in the day of their disaster,

nor seize their wealth

    in the day of their disaster.

14 You should not wait at the crossroads

    to cut down their fugitives,

nor hand over their survivors

    in the day of their trouble.

15 “The day of the Lord is near

    for all nations.

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

    your deeds will return upon your own head.

16 Just as you drank on my holy hill,

    so all the nations will drink continually;

they will drink and drink

    and be as if they had never been.

17 But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;

    it will be holy,

    and Jacob will possess his inheritance.

18 Jacob will be a fire

    and Joseph a flame;

Esau will be stubble,

    and they will set him on fire and destroy him.

There will be no survivors

    from Esau.”

The Lord has spoken.

19 People from the Negev will occupy

    the mountains of Esau,

and people from the foothills will possess

    the land of the Philistines.

They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,

    and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20 This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan

    will possess the land as far as Zarephath;

the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad

    will possess the towns of the Negev.

21 Deliverers will go up on[c] Mount Zion

    to govern the mountains of Esau.

    And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

 

Jonah Flees From the Lord

 

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

 

3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

 

4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

 

But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”

 

7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

 

9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

 

10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)

 

11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

 

12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

 

13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.

 

2 1 [a]From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said:

 

“In my distress I called to the Lord,

    and he answered me.

From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,

    and you listened to my cry.

3 You hurled me into the depths,

    into the very heart of the seas,

    and the currents swirled about me;

all your waves and breakers

    swept over me.

4 I said, ‘I have been banished

    from your sight;

yet I will look again

    toward your holy temple.’

5 The engulfing waters threatened me,[b]

    the deep surrounded me;

    seaweed was wrapped around my head.

6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

    the earth beneath barred me in forever.

But you, Lord my God,

    brought my life up from the pit.

7 “When my life was ebbing away,

    I remembered you, Lord,

and my prayer rose to you,

    to your holy temple.

8 “Those who cling to worthless idols

    turn away from God’s love for them.

9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,

    will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good.

    I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

 

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

 

3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

 

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

 

6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

 

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

 

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

 

10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

 

Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion

 

4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

 

4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

 

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

 

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

 

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

 

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”