Obadiah - Jonah 4

English Standard Version

¹The vision of Obadiah.

Edom Will Be Humbled

Thus says the Lord God ^(A)concerning Edom:
^(B)We have heard a report from the Lord,
    and a messenger has been sent among the nations:
“Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!”
²Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
    you shall be utterly despised.^[a]
³^(C)The pride of your heart has deceived you,
    you who live in the clefts of the rock,^[b]
    in your lofty dwelling,
^(D)who say in your heart,
    “Who will bring me down to the ground?”
⁴Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
    though your nest is set among the stars,
    from there I will bring you down,
declares the Lord.

⁵If ^(E)thieves came to you,
    if plunderers came by night—
    how you have been destroyed!—
    would they not steal only enough for themselves?
If ^(F)grape gatherers came to you,
    would they not leave gleanings?
⁶^(G)How Esau has been pillaged,
    his treasures sought out!
⁷All your allies have driven you to your border;
    those at peace with you have deceived you;
they have prevailed against you;
    ^(H)those who eat your bread^[c] have set a trap beneath you—
    ^(I)you have^[d] no understanding.

⁸^(J)Will I not on that day, declares the Lord,
    destroy the wise men out of Edom,
    and understanding out of ^(K)Mount Esau?
⁹And your mighty men shall be dismayed, ^(L)O Teman,
    so that every man from ^(M)Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.

Edom's Violence Against Jacob

¹⁰^(N)Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob,
    shame shall cover you,
    ^(O)and you shall be cut off forever.
¹¹^(P)On the day that you stood aloof,
    ^(Q)on the day that strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
    ^(R)and cast lots for Jerusalem,
    you were like one of them.
¹²^(S)But do not gloat over the day of your brother
    in the day of his misfortune;
^(T)do not rejoice over the people of Judah
    in the day of their ruin;
^(U)do not boast^[e]
    in the day of distress.
¹³^(V)Do not enter the gate of my people
    in the day of their calamity;
^(W)do not gloat over his disaster
    in the day of his calamity;
^(X)do not loot his wealth
    in the day of his calamity.
¹⁴^(Y)Do not stand at the crossroads
    to cut off his fugitives;
do not hand over his survivors
    in the day of distress.

The Day of the Lord Is Near

¹⁵For ^(Z)the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
^(AA)As you have done, it shall be done to you;
    your deeds shall return on your own head.
¹⁶^(AB)For as you have drunk on ^(AC)my holy mountain,
    so all the nations shall drink continually;
they shall drink and swallow,
    and shall be as though they had never been.
¹⁷^(AD)But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape,
    and it shall be holy,
^(AE)and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.
¹⁸^(AF)The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
    and the house of Joseph a flame,
    and the house of Esau ^(AG)stubble;
they shall burn them and consume them,
    ^(AH)and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau,
for the Lord has spoken.

The Kingdom of the Lord

¹⁹Those of ^(AI)the Negeb ^(AJ)shall possess ^(AK)Mount Esau,
    and those of the Shephelah shall possess ^(AL)the land of the Philistines;
they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of ^(AM)Samaria,
    and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
²⁰The exiles of this host of the people of Israel
    shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as ^(AN)Zarephath,
and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
    shall possess the cities of the Negeb.
²¹^(AO)Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion
    to rule ^(AP)Mount Esau,
    and ^(AQ)the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

Jonah Flees the Presence of the Lord

1 Now the word of the Lord came to ^(AR)Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ²“Arise, go to ^(AS)Nineveh, that ^(AT)great city, and call out against it, ^(AU)for their evil^[f] has come up before me.” ³But Jonah ^(AV)rose to flee to ^(AW)Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to ^(AX)Joppa and found a ship going to ^(AY)Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to ^(AZ)Tarshish, ^(BA)away from the presence of the Lord.

⁴But ^(BB)the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened ^(BC)to break up. ⁵Then the mariners were afraid, and ^(BD)each cried out to his god. And ^(BE)they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. ⁶So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, ^(BF)call out to your god! ^(BG)Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

Jonah Is Thrown into the Sea

⁷And they said to one another, “Come, let us ^(BH)cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” ⁹And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear ^(BI)the Lord, the God of heaven, ^(BJ)who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that ^(BK)he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

¹¹Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. ¹²He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, ^(BL)for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” ¹³Nevertheless, the men rowed hard^[g] to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. ¹⁴Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and ^(BM)lay not on us innocent blood, ^(BN)for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” ¹⁵So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, ^(BO)and the sea ceased from its raging. ¹⁶Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, ^(BP)and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord ^(BQ)and made vows.

A Great Fish Swallows Jonah

¹⁷^[h] And the Lord appointed^[i] a great fish to swallow up Jonah. ^(BR)And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah's Prayer

2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, ²saying,

^(BS)“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
    and he answered me;
^(BT)out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
    ^(BU)and you heard my voice.
³^(BV)For you cast me into the deep,
    into the heart of the seas,
    and the flood surrounded me;
^(BW)all your waves and your billows
    passed over me.
⁴^(BX)Then I said, ‘I am driven away
    from your sight;
^(BY)yet I shall again look
    upon your holy temple.’
⁵^(BZ)The waters closed in over me ^(CA)to take my life;
    the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about 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.
⁷When my life was fainting away,
    I remembered the Lord,
^(CB)and my prayer came to you,
    into your holy temple.
⁸^(CC)Those who pay regard to vain idols
    ^(CD)forsake their hope of steadfast love.
⁹^(CE)But I with the voice of thanksgiving
    will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    ^(CF)Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

¹⁰And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ²“Arise, go to ^(CG)Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” ³So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now ^(CH)Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,^[j] three days' journey in breadth.^[k] ⁴Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” ⁵^(CI)And the people of Nineveh believed God. ^(CJ)They called for a fast and ^(CK)put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The People of Nineveh Repent

⁶The word reached^[l] the king of Nineveh, and ^(CL)he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, ^(CM)and sat in ashes. ⁷And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, ^(CN)“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor ^(CO)beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, ⁸but let man and ^(CP)beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. ^(CQ)Let everyone turn from his evil way and from ^(CR)the violence that is in his hands. ⁹^(CS)Who knows? God may turn and relent ^(CT)and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

¹⁰When God saw what they did, ^(CU)how they turned from their evil way, ^(CV)God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Jonah's Anger and the Lord's Compassion

4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,^[m] and ^(CW)he was angry. ²And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? ^(CX)That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a ^(CY)gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ^(CZ)relenting from disaster. ³^(DA)Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, ^(DB)for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴And the Lord said, ^(DC)“Do you do well to be angry?”

⁵Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and ^(DD)made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. ⁶Now the Lord God appointed a plant^[n] and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.^[o] So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. ⁷But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. ⁸When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching ^(DE)east wind, ^(DF)and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he ^(DG)was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, ^(DH)“It is better for me to die than to live.” ⁹But God said to Jonah, ^(DI)“Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” ¹⁰And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹And should not I pity ^(DJ)Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much ^(DK)cattle?”

Footnotes

Obadiah 1:2 Or Behold, I have made you small among the nations; you are utterly despised
Obadiah 1:3 Or of Sela
Obadiah 1:7 Hebrew lacks those who eat
Obadiah 1:7 Hebrew he has
Obadiah 1:12 Hebrew do not enlarge your mouth
Jonah 1:2 The same Hebrew word can mean evil or disaster, depending on the context; so throughout Jonah
Jonah 1:13 Hebrew the men dug in [their oars]
Jonah 1:17 Ch 2:1 in Hebrew
Jonah 1:17 Or had appointed
Jonah 3:3 Hebrew a great city to God
Jonah 3:3 Or a visit was a three days' journey
Jonah 3:6 Or had reached
Jonah 4:1 Hebrew it was exceedingly evil to Jonah
Jonah 4:6 Hebrew qiqayon, probably the castor oil plant; also verses 7, 9, 10
Jonah 4:6 Or his evil