Study Desk

"When will the New Moon festival be over so we can sell grain? When will the Sabbath be over so we can bring out wheat to sell? We can charge them more and give them less, and we can change the scales to cheat the people.

They make promises by the idol in Samaria and say, ‘As surely as the god of Dan lives... ' and, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives, we promise... ' So they will fall and never get up again."

I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: "Smash the top of the pillars so that even the bottom of the doors will shake. Make the pillars fall on the people's heads; anyone left alive I will kill with a sword. Not one person will get away; no one will escape.

You did violence to your relatives, the Israelites, so you will be covered with shame and destroyed forever.

But the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, which made the sea so stormy that the ship was in danger of breaking apart.

So the men cried to the Lord , " Lord , please don't let us die because of this man's life; please don't think we are guilty of killing an innocent person. Lord , you have caused all this to happen; you wanted it this way."

So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea became calm.

"When I was in danger, I called to the Lord , and he answered me. I was about to die, so I cried to you, and you heard my voice.

So Jonah obeyed the Lord and got up and went to Nineveh. It was a very large city; just to walk across it took a person three days.

So now I ask you, Lord , please kill me. It is better for me to die than to live."

But the next day when the sun rose, God sent a worm to attack the plant so that it died.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, God sent a very hot east wind to blow, and the sun became so hot on Jonah's head that he became very weak and wished he were dead. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

But God said to Jonah, "Do you think it is right for you to be angry about the plant?" Jonah answered, "It is right for me to be angry! I am so angry I could die!"

And the Lord said, "You are so concerned for that plant even though you did nothing to make it grow. It appeared one day, and the next day it died.

"So I will make Samaria a pile of ruins in the open country, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour her stones down into the valley and strip her down to her foundations.

So you must give farewell gifts to Moresheth in Gath. The houses in Aczib will be false help to the kings of Israel.

How terrible it will be for people who plan wickedness, who lie on their beds and make evil plans. When the morning light comes, they do what they planned, because they have the power to do so.

They want fields, so they take them; they want houses, so they take them away. They cheat people to get their houses; they rob them even of their property.

So you will have no one from the Lord 's people to throw lots to divide the land.

So it will become like night for them, without visions. It will become dark for them, without any way to tell the future. The sun is about to set for the prophets; their day will become dark.