Study Desk

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 her for battle!"

Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And 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.

So the captain came and said to him, "What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish."

And he said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord , the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."

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

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.

And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."

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

And he prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord , is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

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

When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die."

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

the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.

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 the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

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.

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