Study Desk

The LORD revoked this sentence. "This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD.

Thus the Lord GOD showed me [a vision], and behold, there was a basket of [overripe] summer fruit.

"In that day, the songs of the palace shall turn to wailing," says the Lord GOD. "There will be many dead bodies; in [sacred] silence they will throw them everywhere."

"It shall come about in that day," says the Lord GOD, "That I shall cause the sun to go down at noon, And I shall darken the earth in broad daylight.

"Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "When I will send hunger over the land, Not hunger for bread or a thirst for water, But rather [a hunger] for hearing the words of the LORD.

"Those who swear [their oaths] by the sin (guilt) of Samaria or Ashimah (a pagan goddess), Who say, 'By the life of your god [the golden calf], O Dan!' And [swear], 'By the life of the way of [idolatrous] Beersheba,' They shall fall and not rise again."

The Lord GOD of hosts [the Omnipotent Ruler], It is He who touches the earth [in judgment] and it melts, And all who dwell on it mourn [in despair and fear], And all of it rises up like the Nile And subsides like the Nile of Egypt;

"Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful [northern] kingdom [of Israel's ten tribes] And I shall destroy it from the face of the earth; But I shall not totally destroy the house of Jacob [that is, the entire nation of Israel]," Says the LORD.

"I will also plant them on their land, And they shall never again be uprooted from their land Which I have given them," Says the LORD your God.

The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom— We have heard a report from the LORD, And an ambassador has been sent among the nations, saying, "Arise, and let us rise up against Edom for battle [with the LORD as commander]!"

Then the sailors were afraid, and each man cried out to his god; and to lighten the ship [and diminish the danger] they threw the ship's cargo into the sea. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was sound asleep.

So the captain came up to him and said, "How can you stay asleep? Get up! Call on your god! Perhaps your god will give a thought to us so that we will not perish."

So he said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I [reverently] fear and worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish,

"I descended to the [very] roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars closed behind me [bolting me in] forever, Yet You have brought up my life from the pit (death), O LORD my God.

The people of Nineveh believed and trusted in God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth [in penitent mourning], from the greatest even to the least of them.

When word reached the king of Nineveh [of Jonah's message from God], he rose from his throne, took off his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in the dust [in repentance].

"But both man and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and every one is to call on God earnestly and forcefully that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence that is in his hands.

"Who knows, God may turn [in compassion] and relent and withdraw His burning anger (judgment) so that we will not perish."

When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God [had compassion and] relented concerning the disaster which He had declared that He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.