Bible in a Year · Day 281 of 365
Today’s reading: Jonah 4 – Micah 2 (3 chapters)
Read the passage below, or open your own Bible and follow along. The text here is the World English Bible, a public-domain translation, printed in full so the day’s reading is all on one page.
About Jonah
Jonah is a prophet who runs. Told to preach to Nineveh, the great city of Assyria, he boards a ship in the opposite direction, sleeps through a storm, and ends up in the sea and then in a fish. When he finally goes, the city repents, and the book's last chapter is not about Nineveh at all. It is about Jonah, sulking outside the city, angry that God is merciful. The book ends with God asking a question and no answer recorded. It is a short story about a reluctant messenger and a God who is more willing to save than his prophet is to see it.
What to watch for. Watch the contrast between the sailors and the prophet, and read the last four verses slowly. The book ends on a question that is meant for the reader as much as for Jonah.
Jonah 4
1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm. 3Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4Yahweh said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 5Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth, and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city.
6Yahweh God prepared a vine, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine. 7But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine, so that it withered. 8When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.” 10Yahweh said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night.
11Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?”
Micah 1
1Yahweh’s word that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. 4The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place. 5“All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem?
6Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations. 7All her idols will be beaten to pieces, and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and all her images I will destroy; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.” 8For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls. 9For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 10Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust.
11Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won’t come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection. 12For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem. 13Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 14Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. 15I will yet bring to you, inhabitant of Mareshah. He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam.
16Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!
Micah 2
1Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 3Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster, from which you will not remove your necks, neither will you walk haughtily; for it is an evil time. 4In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, ‘We are utterly ruined! My people’s possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!’” 5Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in Yahweh’s assembly.
6“Don’t prophesy!” They prophesy. “Don’t prophesy about these things. Disgrace won’t overtake us.” 7Shall it be said, O house of Jacob: “Is Yahweh’s Spirit angry? Are these his doings? Don’t my words do good to him who walks blamelessly?” 8But lately my people have risen up as an enemy. You strip the robe and clothing from those who pass by without a care, returning from battle. 9You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my blessing forever. 10Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction.
11If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies: “I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink”; he would be the prophet of this people. 12I will surely assemble, Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the middle of their pasture; they will swarm with people. 13He who breaks open the way goes up before them. They break through the gate, and go out. And their king passes on before them, with Yahweh at their head.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public-domain translation. Day numbering follows the calendar year; you can start at Day 1 on any date.
