anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
3 Now, O Lord , take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.'
4 But the Lord replied, 'Have you any right to be angry?'
5 Jonah went 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 vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.
7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine 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, 'Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?' 'I do,' he said. 'I am angry enough to die.'
10 But the Lord said, 'You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?'
Micah
1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah-the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, O peoples, all of you, listen, O earth and all who are in it, that the Sovereign Lord may witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
3 Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and treads the high places of the earth.
4 The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.
5 All this is because of Jacob's transgression, because of the sins of the house of Israel. What is Jacob's transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is Judah's high place? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 'Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour her stones into the valley and lay bare her foundations.
7 All her idols will be broken to pieces; all her temple gifts will be burned with fire; I will destroy all her images. Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes, as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used.'
8 Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl.
9 For her wound is incurable; it has come to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself.
10 Tell it not in Gath ; weep not at all. In Beth Ophrah roll in the dust.
11 Pass on in nakedness and shame, you who live in Shaphir. Those who live in Zaanan will not come out. Beth Ezel is in mourning; its protection is taken from you.
12 Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain, waiting for relief, because disaster has come from the Lord , even to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 You who live in Lachish, harness the team to the chariot. You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
14 Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth Gath. The town of Aczib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel.
15 I will bring a conqueror against you who live in Mareshah. He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam.
16 Shave your heads in mourning for the children in whom you delight; make yourselves as bald as the vulture, for they will go from you into exile.
2 Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.
2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance.
3 Therefore, the Lord says: 'I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.
4 In that day men will ridicule you; they will taunt you with this mournful song: 'We are utterly ruined; my people's possession is divided up. He takes it from me! He assigns our fields to traitors.' '
5 Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the Lord to divide the land by lot.
6 'Do not prophesy,' their prophets say. 'Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us.'
7 Should it be said, O house of Jacob: 'Is the Spirit of the Lord angry? Does he do such things?' 'Do not my words do good to him whose ways are upright?
