Study Desk

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

Then the Lord said, "Do you think it is right for you to be angry?"

Jonah went out and sat down east of the city. There he made a shelter for himself and sat in the shade, waiting to see what would happen to the city.

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.

Then shouldn't I show concern for the great city Nineveh, which has more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know right from wrong, and many animals, too?"

"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.

Those who live in Maroth will be anxious for good news to come, because trouble will come from the Lord , all the way to the gate of Jerusalem.

Cut off your hair to show you are sad for the children you love. Make yourself bald like the eagle, because your children will be taken away to a foreign land.

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.

But you people want a false prophet who will tell you nothing but lies. You want one who promises to prophesy good things for you if you give him wine and beer. He's just the prophet for you.

You eat my people's flesh and skin them and break their bones; you chop them up like meat for the pot, like meat in a cooking pan.

The Lord says this about the prophets who teach his people the wrong way of living: "If these prophets are given food to eat, they shout, ‘Peace!' But if someone doesn't give them what they ask for, they call for a holy war against that person.

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.

Its judges take money to decide who wins in court. Its priests only teach for pay, and its prophets only look into the future when they get paid. But they lean on the Lord and say, "The Lord is here with us, so nothing bad will happen to us."

The Lord will judge many nations; he will make decisions about strong nations that are far away. They will hammer their swords into plow blades and their spears into hooks for trimming trees. Nations will no longer raise swords against other nations; they will not train for war anymore.

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are too small to be among the army groups from Judah, from you will come one who will rule Israel for me. He comes from very old times, from days long ago."

Then the people of Jacob who are left alive will be to other people like dew from the Lord or rain on the grass— it does not wait for human beings; it does not pause for any person.

Will the Lord be pleased with a thousand male sheep? Will he be pleased with ten thousand rivers of oil? Should I give my first child for the evil I have done? Should I give my very own child for my sin?"