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Salvation and victory of Jacob.

JONAH. Jonah commanded to go to Nineveh.

saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?

13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their 4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have and though thou set thy nest among the looked on their affliction in the day of their stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith calamity, nor have laid hands on their the LORD. substance in the day of their calamity;

5 If thieves came to thee, if robbers by 14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in night, (how art thou cut off!) would they the cross-way, to cut off those of his that not have stolen till they had enough? if did escape; neither shouldest thou have the grape-gatherers came to thee, would delivered up those of his that did remain they not leave some grapes? in the day of distress.

15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up! 7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at with thee have deceivpeace 16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy ed thee, and prevailed against thee; they mountain, so shall all the heathen drink that eat thy bread have laid a wound un-continually, yea, they shall drink, and der thee: there is none understanding in they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

him.

8 Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, 17 ¶ But upon mount Zion shall be deeven destroy the wise men out of Edom, liverance, and there shall be holiness; and and understanding out of the mount of Esau? the house of Jacob shall possess their pos9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall sessions.

be dismayed, to the end that every one 18 And the house of Jacob shall be a of the mount of Esau may be cut off by fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and slaughter. the house of Esau for stubble, and they 10 ¶ For thy violence against thy bro-shall kindle in them, and devour them; ther Jacob shame shall cover thee, and and there shall not be any remaining of the thou shalt be cut off for ever. house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it. 11 In the day that thou stoodest on the 19 And they of the south shall possess other side, in the day that the strangers the mount of Esau; and they of the plain carried away captive his forces, and fo- the Philistines: and they shall possess the reigners entered into his gates, and cast fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samalots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as ria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. one of them. 20 And the captivity of this host of the

12 But thou shouldest not have looked children of Israel shall possess that of the on the day of thy brother in the day that Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the he became a stranger; neither shouldest captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sephthou have rejoiced over the children of arad, shall possess the cities of the south. Judah in the day of their destruction; nei- 21 And saviours shall come up on mount ther shouldest thou have spoken proudly Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the in the day of distress. kingdom shall be the LORD's.

CHAP. I.

¶ JONAH.

N Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, TOW the word of the LORD came unto 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

6 So the ship-master came to him, and 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tar- said unto him, What meanest thou, Osleepshish from the presence of the LORD, and er? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that went down to Joppa; and he found a ship God will think upon us, that we perish going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare not.

thereof, and went down into it, to go with 7 And they said every one to his fellow, them unto Tarshish from the presence of Come, and let us cast lots, that we may the LORD. know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

4 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is up5 Then the mariners were afraid, and on us; What is thine occupation? and

CHAP. II, III, IV. He preaches to the Ninevites.

Jonah is thrown into the sea. whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?

8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the 9 And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that heaven, which hath made the sea and the that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. dry land.

10 T And the LORD spake unto the fish, 10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry done this? For the men knew that he fled land. from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

CHAP. III.

11 ¶ Then said they unto him, What AND the word of the LORD came unto

shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.

12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.

13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.

Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

5 So the people of Nineveh believed 14 Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on. beseech thee, let us not perish for this sackcloth, from the greatest of them even man's life, and lay not upon us innocent to the least of them. blood for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.

6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and 15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him he laid his robe from him, and covered forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. her raging.

16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.

7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor

17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jo-drink water: nah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

CHAP. II.

This God out of the fish's belly,
HEN Jonah prayed unto the LORD

2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil hands. way, and from the violence that is in their

9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

10 ¶ And God saw their works, that 3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, they turned from their evil way; and God in the midst of the seas; and the floods repented of the evil that he had said that compassed me about: all thy billows and he would do unto them; and he did it thy waves passed over me.

not.

CHAP. IV.

4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; I and he was very angry. yet I will look again toward thy holy BUT it displeased Jonah exceedingly, temple. 2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and 5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this about, the weeds were wrapped about my my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for head. 6 I went down to the bottoms of the I knew that thou art a gracious God, and mountains; the earth with her bars was merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindabout me for ever: yet hast thou brought ness, and repentest thee of the evil. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beup my life from corruption, O LORD my seech thee, my life from me; for it is betGod.

7 When my soul fainted within me I ter for me to die than to live. remembered the LORD: and my prayer

4 ¶ Then said the LORD, Doest thou

came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. well to be angry?

695

Jonah's repining reproved.

MICAH.

5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

Micah shows God's wrath.

Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.

10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore 8 And it came to pass, when the sun did thousand persons that cannot discern bearise, that God prepared a vehement east tween their right hand and their left hand, wind; and the sun beat upon the head of and also much cattle?

1 МІСАН.

CHAP. I.

Jhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the HE word of the LORD that came to mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive Microforashite in the days of of you his standing. Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

3 For behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem.

13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.

14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.

15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

5 For the transgression of Jacob is all 16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldWhat is the transgression of Jacob? is it ness as the eagle; for they are gone into not Samaria? and what are the high places captivity from thee. of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

6 Therefore I will make Samaria as a

CHAP. II.

heap of the field, and as plantings of a Wo to them that devise iniquity, and

work evil upon their beds! when vineyard: and I will pour down the stones the morning is light, they practise it, bethereof into the valley, and I will discover cause it is in the power of their hand. the foundations thereof. 2 And they covet fields, and take them

7 And all the graven images thereof shall by violence; and houses, and take them be beaten to pieces, and all the hires there-away: so they oppress a man and his of shall be burned with the fire, and all the house, even a man and his heritage. idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she 3 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Begathered it of the hire of a harlot, and hold, against this family do I devise an they shall return to the hire of a harlot. evil, from which ye shall not remove your 8 Therefore I will wail and howl; I necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for will go stripped and naked: I will make this time is evil.

a wailing like the dragons, and mourning 4 In that day shall one take up a paraas the owls. ble against you, and lament with a doleful 9 For her wound is incurable; for it is lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoilcome unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

10 Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.

ed: he hath changed the portion of my [people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields,

5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.

11 Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the in- 6 Prophesy ye not, say they to them that

The cruelty of the princes.

CHAP. III, IV.

The glory of the church. prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, of might, to declare unto Jacob his transthat they shall not take shame. gression, and to Israel his sin.

7 TO thou that art namedThe house of 9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the Jacob, is the Spirit of the LORD straitened? house of Jacob, and princes of the house are these his doings? do not my words do of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pergood to him that walketh uprightly? vert all equity.

8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.

10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and 9 The women of my people have ye cast the prophets thereof divine for money: out from their pleasant houses; from their yet will they lean upon the LORD, and children have ye taken away my glory for say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

ever.

10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not 12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake your rest: because it is polluted, it shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. become heaps, and the mountain of the 11 If a man walking in the spirit and house as the high places of the forest. falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy CHAP. IV. unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he BUT in the last days it shall come to shall even be the prophet of this people. pass, that the mountain of the house 12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, of the LORD shall be established in the all of thee; I will surely gather the rem- top of the mountains, and it shall be exnant of Israel; I will put them together as alted above the hills; and people shall the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the flow unto it. midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.

13 The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it; and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.

CHAP. III.

2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 T And he shall judge among many

ND I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment? plough-shares, and their spears into pru2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; ning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword who pluck off their skin from off them, and against nation, neither shall they learn war their flesh from off their bones; any more. 3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, 4 But they shall sit every man under and flay their skin from off them; and they his vine and under his fig-tree; and none break their bones, and chop them in pieces, shall make them afraid: for the mouth of as for the pot, and as flesh within the cal- the LORD of hosts hath spoken it. dron. 5 For all people will walk every one in 4 Then shall they cry unto the LORD, the name of his god, and we will walk in but he will not hear, them: he will even the name of the LORD our God for ever hide his face from them at that time, as and ever.

they have behaved themselves ill in their 6 In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemdoings. ble her that halteth, and I will gather her that 5 Thus saith the LORD concerning the is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; prophets that make my people err, that 7 And I will make her that halted a bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace'; and remnant, and her that was cast far off a he that putteth not into their mouths, they strong nation: and the LORD shall reign even prepare war against him: over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

6 Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be 8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto and the sun shall go down over the pro- thee shall it come, even the first dominion; phets, and the day shall be dark over them. the kingdom shall come to the daughter of 7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and Jerusalem. the diviners confounded: yea, they shall 9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is all cover their lips; for there is no answer there no king in thee? is thy counsellor of God. perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.

8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and

10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth,

The birth of Christ, and

MICAH.

his kingdom and conquest. O daughter of Zion, like a woman in tra-[ 9 Thine hand shall be lifted up upon vail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the thine adversaries, and all thine enemies city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and shall be cut off.

thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt 10 And it shall come to pass in that day, thou be delivered; there the LORD shall saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses redeem thee from the hand of thine ene- out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy mies. thy chariots:

11 T Now also many nations are ga- 11 And I will cut off the cities of thy thered against thee, that say, Let her be land, and throw down all thy strong defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. holds:

12 But they know not the thoughts of 12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of the LORD, neither understand they his thine hand; and thou shalt have no more counsel: for he shall gather them as the sooth-sayers:

sheaves into the floor.

13 Thy graven images also will I cut

13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: off, and thy standing images out of the for I will make thine horn iron, and I will midst of thee; and thou shalt no more wormake thy hoofs brass and thou shalt beat ship the work of thine hands.. in pieces many people: and I will conse- 14 And I will pluck up thy groves out crate their gain unto the LORD, and their of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy substance unto the LORD of the whole cities. earth.

CHAP. V.

NOW gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.

CHAP. VI.

HEAR ye now what the LORD saith;

Arise, contend thou before the moun

2 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though tains, and let the hills hear thy voice. thou be little among the thousands of Ju- 2 Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD'S dah, yet out of thee shall he come forth controversy, and ye strong foundations of unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy goings forth have been from of old, from with his people, and he will plead with everlasting. Israel.

3 Therefore will he give them up, until 3 O my people, what have I done unto the time that she which travaileth hath thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? brought forth then the remnant of his testify against me. brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.

4 And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from 5 And this man shall be the peace, when Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the the Assyrian shall come into our land: and righteousness of the LORD. when he shall tread in our palaces, then 6 Wherewith shall I come before the shall we raise against him seven shepherds, LORD, and bow myself before the high and eight principal men. God? shall I come before him with burntofferings, with calves of a year old?

6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he tread

eth within our borders.

7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in! 8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is the midst of many people as' a dew from good; and what doth the LORD require of the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for and to walk humbly with thy God?

the sons of men.

9 The LORD's voice crieth unto the

8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy among the Gentiles in the midst of many name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appeople as a lion among the beasts of the pointed it.

forest, as a young lion among the flocks of 10 Are there yet the treasures of sheep: who, if he go through, both tread- wickedness in the house of the wicked, and eth down, and teareth in pieces, and none the scant measure that is abominable? can deliver. 11 Shall I count them pure with the

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