 The Books of Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah from the Young's Literal Translation of the Bible. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mark Penfold. The Books of Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah from the Young's Literal Translation. The Book of Obadiah. Thus said the Lord Jehovah to Edom, a report we have heard from Jehovah, and an ambassador among nations was sent. Rise! Yay! Let us rise against her for battle! Low, little I have made thee among nations, despised art thou exceedingly, the pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up, O dweller in cliffs of a rock. A high place is his habitation, he is saying in his heart. You doth bring me down to earth, if thou dost go up high as an eagle, and if between stars thou dost set thy nest, from thence I bring thee down, an affirmation of Jehovah. If thieves have come into thee, if spoilers of the night, how hast thou been cut off? Do they not steal their sufficiency? If gatherers have come into thee, do they not leave gleaning's? How hath Esau been searched out, flowed out hath his hidden things, unto the border sent thee have all thine allies, forgotten thee, prevailed over thee have thy friends, thy bread they make a snare under thee, there is no understanding in him. Is it not in that day, an affirmation of Jehovah, that I have destroyed the wise out of Edom, an understanding out of the mount of Esau, and broken down have been thy mighty ones, O teamon, so that every one of the mount of Esau is cut off. For slaughter, for violence to thy brother Jacob, cover thee doth shame, and thou hast been cut off to the age. In the day of thy standing over against, in the day of strangers taking captive his force, and foreigners have entered his gates, and for Jerusalem have cast a lot, even thou art as one of them. Thou dost not look on the day of thy brother, on the day of his alienation. Nor dost thou rejoice over sons of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor make great thy mouth in a day of distress, nor come into a gate of my people in a day of their calamity. Nor look even thou on its misfortune in a day of its calamity, nor send forth against its force in a day of its calamity. Nor stand by the breach to cut off its escape, nor deliver up its remnant in a day of distress, for near is the day of Jehovah on all the nations. As thou hast done, it is done to thee, thy deed doth turn back on thine own head. For as ye have drunk on my holy mount, drink to all the nations continually, and they have drunk, and have swallowed, and they have been as they have not been. And in Mount Zion there is an escape, and it have been holy, and the house of Jacob have possessed their possessions, and the house of Jacob have been a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they have burned among them, and they have consumed them, and there is not a remnant to the house of Esau, for Jehovah hath spoken, and they have possessed the south with the mount of Esau, and the low country with the Philistines, and they have possessed the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria, and Benjamin with Gilead, and the removed of this force of the sons of Israel, that is with the Canaanites unto Zarephat, and the removed of Jerusalem that is with the Safarad possessed the cities of the south, and gone up have saviours on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau, and the kingdom hath been to Jehovah, the end of the book of Obadiah, the book of Jonah, chapter one. And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jonah, son of Amatai, saying, Rise, go unto Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim against it that their wickedness hath come up before me. And Jonah riseth to flee to Tarshish from the face of Jehovah, and goeth down to Joppa, and findeth a ship going to Tarshish, and he giveth its fare, and goeth down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the face of Jehovah. And Jehovah hath cast a great wind on the sea, and there is a great tempest in the sea, and the ship hath reckoned to be broken. And the mariners are afraid, and cry each unto his God, and cast the goods that are in the ship into the sea, to make it light of them. And Jonah hath gone down unto the sides of the vessel, and he lieth down, and is fast asleep. And the chief of the company droth near to him, and saith to him, What, to thee, oh sleeper, Rise, come unto thy God, it may be God doth bethink himself of us, and we do not perish. And they say each unto his neighbor, Come, and we cast lots, and we know on whose account this evil is on us. And they cast lots, and the lot falleth on Jonah. And they say unto him, Declare to us, we pray thee, On what account this evil is on us. What is thine occupation, and whence cometh thou? What is thy country, seeing thou art not of this people? And he saith unto them, A Hebrew I am, and Jehovah God of the heavens I am reverencing, Who made the sea and the dry land. And the men fear a great fear, and say unto him, What is this thou hast done? For the men have known that from the face of Jehovah he is fleeing, for he hath told them. And they say unto him, What do we do to thee, that the sea may cease from us, for the sea is more and more tempestuous? And he saith unto them, Lift me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea doth cease from you, for I know that on my account this great tempest is upon you. And the men row to turn back unto the dry land, and are not able, for the sea is more and more tempestuous against them. And they cry unto Jehovah, and say, We pray thee, O Jehovah, let us not we pray thee, perish for this man's life, and do not lay on us innocent blood, for thou, Jehovah, as thou hast pleased, thou hast done. And they lift up Jonah, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceaseth from its raging. And the men fear Jehovah, a great fear, and sacrifice a sacrifice to Jehovah, and vow vows. And Jehovah appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah is in the bowels of the fish, three days and three nights. CHAPTER II And Jonah prayeth unto Jehovah his God from the bowels of the fish. And he saith. I called, because of my distress to Jehovah, and he doth answer me, from the belly of Sheol I have cried, thou hast heard my voice. When thou dost cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, then the flood doth compass me, all thy breakers and thy billows have passed over me. And I, I said, I have been cast out from before thine eyes, yet I add to look unto thy holy temple. Cast me have waters unto the soul, the deep doth compass me, the weed is bound to my head. To the cuttings of mountains I have come down, the earth, her bars are behind me to the age. And thou bringest up from the pit my life, O Jehovah my God. In the feebleness within me of my soul, Jehovah I have remembered. And come in unto thee, doth my prayer, unto thy holy temple. Those observing lying vanities their own mercy for sake. And I, with a voice of thanksgiving, I sacrifice to thee, that which I have vowed I complete. Salvation is of Jehovah. And Jehovah saith to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land. Chapter 3 And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jonah a second time, saying, Rise, go unto Nineveh the great city, and proclaim unto it the proclamation that I am speaking unto thee. And Jonah riseth, and he goeth unto Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. And Nineveh hath been a great city before God, a journey of three days. And Jonah beginneth to go in to the city a journey of one day, and proclaimeth, Yet forty days, and Nineveh is overturned. And the men of Nineveh believe in God, and proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest, even unto their least. Seeing the word doth come unto the king of Nineveh, and he riseth from his throne, and removeeth his honorable robe from off him, and spreadeth out sackcloth, and siteth on the ashes. And he cryeth, and sayeth in Nineveh, by a decree of the king and his great ones, saying, Man and beast, herd and flock, let them not taste anything, let them not feed, even water, let them not drink, and cover themselves with sackcloth, let man and beast, and let them call unto God mightily, and let them turn back each from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knoweth, he doth turn back, and God hath repented, and hath turned back from the heat of his anger, and we do not perish? And God seeeth their works, that they have turned back from their evil way, and God repenteth of the evil that he spake of doing to them, and he hath not done it. Chapter 4 And it is grievous unto Jonah, a great evil, and he is displeased at it, and he prayeth unto Jehovah, and he sayeth, I pray thee, O Jehovah, is not this my word while I was in my own land, therefore I was beforehand to flee to Tarshish, that I have known that thou art a God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness, and repenting of evil? And now, O Jehovah, take I pray thee my soul from me, for better is my death than my life! And Jehovah sayeth, is doing good displeasing to thee? And Jonah goeth forth from the city, and siteth on the east of the city, and maketh to himself there a booth, and siteth under it in the shade, till that he seeeth what is in the city. And Jehovah God appointeth a gourd, and causeth it to come up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head, to give deliverance to him from his affliction, and Jonah rejoiceth because of the gourd with great joy. And God appointeth a worm at the going up of the dawn on the morrow, and it smitheth the gourd, and it drieth up. And it cometh to pass about the rising of the sun, that God appointeth a cutting east wind, and the sun smitheth on the head of Jonah, and he wrapeth himself up, and asketh his soul to die, and sayeth, better is my death than my life! And God sayeth unto Jonah, is doing good displeasing to thee because of the gourd? And he sayeth, to do good is displeasing to me, unto death! And Jehovah sayeth, thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou didst not labor, neither didst thou nourish it, which a son of a night was, and a son of a night perished. And I have not I pity on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than twelve myriads of human beings who have not known between their right hand and their left, and much cattle. The end of the Book of Jonah. The Book of Micah. Chapter One. A word of Jehovah that hath been unto Micah the Moorishite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Kings of Judah, that he hath seen concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, O peoples, all of them, attend, O earth, and its fullness, and the Lord Jehovah is against you for a witness, the Lord from his holy temple. For lo, Jehovah is going out from his place, and he hath come down, and hath trodden on high places of earth. Melted have been the mountains under him, and the valleys do rend themselves, as wax from the presence of fire, as waters cast down by a slope. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what the high places of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? And I have sent Samaria for a heap of the field, for plantations of a vineyard, and poured out into a valley her stones and her foundations I uncover. And all her graven images are beaten down, and all her gifts are burnt with fire, and all her idols I make a desolation for from the higher of a harlot she gathered, and unto the higher of a harlot they return. For this I lament and howl, I go spoiled and naked, I make a lamentation like dragons, and a mourning like daughters of an ostrich. For mortal are her wounds, for it hath come unto Judah, it hath come to a gate of my people, to Jerusalem. In gath tell ye not, in echo weep not, in Beth Afra, in dust roll thyself. Pass over for thee, O inhabitant of Shafir, naked one of shame. Not gone out hath the inhabitant of Zaanon, the lamentation of Beth Ezel doth take from you its standing. For stayed for good hath the inhabitant of Morath, for evil hath come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem. Bind the chariot to a swift beast, O inhabitant of Lachish, the beginning of sin is she to the daughter of Zion, for in thee hath been found the transgressions of Israel. Therefore thou givest presence to Morosheth gath, the houses of Aqzib become a lying thing to the kings of Israel. Yet the possessor I do bring into thee, O inhabitant of Morisha, to Adulam, come in doth the honor of Israel. Make bald and shave for thy delightful sons, enlarge thy baldness as an eagle, for they have removed from thee. Chapter 2 Woe to those devising iniquity and working evil on their beds in the light of the morning they do it, for their hand is to God, and they have desired fields, and they have taken violently and houses, and they have taken away and have oppressed a man and his house, even a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus said Jehovah, Lo, I am devising against this family evil from which ye do not remove your necks, nor walk loftily for a time of evil it is. In that day doth one take up for you a simile, and he hath wailed a wailing of woe, he hath said, We have been utterly spoiled, the portion of my people he doth change, how doth he move toward me, to the backslider our fields he apportioneth. Therefore thou hast no caster of a line by lot in the assembly of Jehovah. Ye do not prophesy, they do prophesy, they do not prophesy to these, it doth not remove shame. Doth the house of Jacob say, hath the spirit of Jehovah been shortened, are these his doings? Do not my words benefit the people that is walking uprightly? And yesterday my people for an enemy doth raise himself up, from the outer garment the honorable ornament ye strip off, from the confident passersby ye who are turning back from war. The women of my people ye cast out from its delightful house, from its sucklings ye take away my honor to the age. Rise and go, for this is not the rest, because of uncleanness it doth corrupt, and corruption is powerful. If one is going with the wind, and with falsehood hath lied, I prophesy to thee of wine, and of strong drink, he hath been the prophet of this people. I do surely gather thee, O Jacob, all of thee. I surely bring together the remnant of Israel. Together I do set it as the flock of Bosra. As a drove in the midst of its pasture, it maketh a noise because of man. Gone up hath the breaker before them. They have broken through, ye they pass through the gate, ye they go out through it, and pass on doth their king before them, and Jehovah at their head. Chapter 3. And I say, here I pray you, heads of Jacob, and ye judges of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know the judgment? Ye who are hating good and loving evil, taking violently their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones, and who have eaten the flesh of my people, and their skin from off them have stripped, and their bones they have broken, and they have spread them out as in a pot, and as flesh in the midst of a cauldron? Then do they cry unto Jehovah, and he doth not answer them, and hideeth his face from them at that time, as they have made evil their doings. Thus said Jehovah concerning the prophets, who are causing my people to err, who are biting with their teeth, and have cried, peace, and he who doth not give unto their mouth, they have sanctified against him war. Therefore a night ye have without vision, and darkness ye have without divination, and gone in hath the sun on the prophets, and black over them hath been the day. And ashamed have been the seers, and confounded have been the diviners, and covered their lip have all of them, for there is no answer, O God. And yet I have been full of power by the spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. Here this I pray you, heads of the house of Jacob, and ye judges of the house of Israel, who are making judgment abominable, and all a brightness do pervert, building of Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her heads for a bribe do judge, and her priests for hire do teach, and her prophets for silver divine, and on Jehovah they lean, saying, Is not Jehovah in our midst? Evil doth not come in upon us. Therefore, for your sake, Zion is plowed afield, and Jerusalem is heaps, and the mount of the house is for high places of a forest. Chapter 4 And it hath come to pass in the latter end of the days. The mount of the house of Jehovah is established above the top of the mounts, and it hath been lifted up above the hills, and flowed unto it have peoples. And gone have many nations, and said, Come, and we go up to the mount of Jehovah, and unto the house of the God of Jacob. And he doth teach us of his ways, and we do walk in his paths. For from Zion doth go forth a law, and a word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And he hath judged between many peoples, and given a decision to mighty nations afar off. They have beaten their swords to plowshares, and their spears to pruning hooks. Nation lifteth not up sword unto nation, nor do they learn war any more. And they have sat each under his vine, and under his fig tree, and there is none troubling, for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken. For all the peoples do walk each in the name of its God, and we do walk in the name of Jehovah, our God, to the age and forever. In that day, an affirmation of Jehovah, I do gather the halting one, and the driven away one I bring together, and she whom I have afflicted. And I have set the halting for a remnant, and the far off for a mighty nation. And reigned hath Jehovah over them in Mount Zion, from henceforth and unto the age. And thou, O tower of Eder, fort of the daughter of Zion, unto thee it cometh, yea, come in, hath the former rule, the kingdom, to the daughter of Jerusalem. Now, why dost thou shout aloud, a king, is there none in thee? hath thy counselor perished, that taken hold of thee hath pain as a travelling woman? Be pained, and bring forth, O daughter of Zion, as a travelling woman, for now thou goest forth from the city, and thou hast dwelt in the field, and thou hast gone unto Babylon. There thou art delivered, there redeem thee Doth Jehovah, from the hand of thine enemies. And now, gathered against thee have been many nations who are saying, Let her be defiled, and our eyes look on Zion. They have not known the thoughts of Jehovah, nor have they understood his counsel, for he hath gathered them as a sheaf, into a threshing floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for thy horn I make iron, and thy hoofs I make brass, and thou hast beaten small many peoples, and I have devoted to Jehovah their gain, and their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth. Chapter 5 Now gather thyself together, O daughter of troops, a siege he hath laid against us, with a rod they smite on the cheek, the judge of Israel, and thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, little to be among the chiefs of Judah. From thee to me he cometh forth to be a ruler in Israel, and his comings forth are of old, from the days of antiquity. Therefore he doth give them out till the time she who bringeth forth hath brought forth, and the remnant of his brethren return to the sons of Israel. And he hath stood and delighted in the strength of Jehovah, in the excellency of the name of Jehovah his God, and they have remained, for now he is great unto the ends of earth. And this one hath been peace, Asher, when he doth come into our land, and when he doth tread in our palaces, we have raised against him seven shepherds, and eight anointed of man. And they have afflicted the land of Asher with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its openings, and he hath delivered from Asher when he doth come into our land, and when he treadeth in our borders. And the remnant of Jacob hath been in the midst of many peoples, as do from Jehovah, as showers on the herb, that waiteth not for man, nor stayeth for the sons of men. Yea, the remnant of Jacob hath been among nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among beasts of a forest, as a young lion among ranks of a flock, which, if it hath passed through, hath both trodden down and hath torn, and there is no deliverer. High is thy hand above thine adversaries, and all thine enemies are cut off, and it hath come to pass in that day, an affirmation of Jehovah. I have cut off thy horses from thy midst, and I have destroyed thy chariots, and I have cut off the cities of thy land, and I have thrown down all thy fortresses, and have cut off sorcerers out of thy hand, and observers of clouds thou hast none, and I have cut off thy graven images, and thy standing pillars out of thy midst, and thou dost not bow thyself any more to the work of thy hands, and I have plucked up thy shrines out of thy midst, and I have destroyed thine enemies, and I have done vengeance in anger and in fury with the nations who hath not hearkened. Chapter 6 Here I pray you that which Jehovah is saying, Rise, strive thou with the mountains, and cause thou the hills to hear thy voice. Here, O mountains, the strife of Jehovah ye strong ones, foundations of earth, for a strife is to Jehovah with his people, and with Israel he doth reason. O my people, what have I done to thee, and what have I wearied thee? Testify against me. For I brought thee up from the land of Egypt, and from the house of servants I have ransomed thee, and I send before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember I pray you, what counsel did Balak, king of Moab, what answer him did Balam, son of Beor, from Shittim unto Gilgal, in order to know the righteous acts of Jehovah? With what do I come before Jehovah? Do I bow to God most high? Do I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves, sons of a year? Is Jehovah pleased with thousands of rams, with myriads of streams of oil? Do I give my first born for my transgression? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath declared to thee, O man, what is good, yea, what is Jehovah requiring of thee, except to do judgment, and love kindness, and lowly to walk with thy God? A voice of Jehovah to the city, Caleth, and wisdom doth fear thy name, hear ye the rod, and him who appointed it? Are there yet in the house of the wicked treasures of wickedness, and the abhorred scanty effa? Do I reckon it pure with balances of wickedness, and with a bag of deceitful stones? Whose rich ones have been full of violence, and its inhabitants have spoken falsehood, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth? And I also, I hath begun to smite thee, to make desolate because of thy sins. Thou, thou eatest, and thou art not satisfied, and thy pit is in thy midst, and thou removeest, and dost not deliver, and that which thou deliverest to a sword I give. Thou, thou sowest, and thou dost not reap. Thou, thou treadest the olive, and thou pourest not out oil, and new wine, and thou drinkest not wine. And kept habitually are the statutes of Omri, and all the work of the house of Ahab, and ye do walk in their councils, for my giving thee for a desolation, and its inhabitants for a hissing, and the reproach of my people ye do bear. Chapter 7 My woe is to me, for I have been as gatherings of summer fruit, as gleaning of harvest there is no cluster to eat, the first ripe fruit desired half my soul, perished half the kind out of the land, and upright among men there are none. All of them for blood, lion, weight, each his brother they hunt with a net. On the evil are both hands to do it well, the prince is asking also the judge for recompense, and the great he is speaking the mischief of his soul, and they wrap it up. Their best one is as a briar, the upright one, then a thorn hedge, the day of thy watchman, thy visitation hath come, now is their perplexity. Believe not in a friend, trust not in a leader, from her who is lying in thy bosom, keep the openings of thy mouth. For a son is dishonoring a father, a daughter hath stood against her mother, a daughter in law against her mother in law, the enemies of each are the men of his house. And I, in Jehovah, I do watch, I do wait for the God of my salvation, hear me, doth my God, thou dost not rejoice over me, O my enemy, when I have fallen, I have risen, when I sit in darkness, Jehovah is a light to me. The indignation of Jehovah I do bear, for I have sinned against him, till that he doth plead my cause, and hath executed my judgment, he doth bring me forth to the light, I look on his righteousness, and see doth mine enemy, and cover her doth shame, who sayeth unto me, where is Jehovah thy God? Mine eyes do look on her, now she is for a treading place, as mire of the outplaces. The day to build thy walls, that day removed is the limit, that day even unto thee it doth come in, from ashore and the cities of the fortress, and from the fortress even unto the river, and from sea to sea, and mount to mount. And the land hath been for a desolation, because of its inhabitants, because of the fruit of their doings. Rule thou, thy people, with thy rod, the flock of thine inheritance, dwelling alone in a forest, in the midst of Carmel, they enjoy Bashan in Gilead, as in days of old. According to the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt, I do shew it wonderful things, see do nations, and they are ashamed of all their might. They lay a hand on the mouth, their ears are deaf. They lick dust as a serpent, as fearful things of earth. They tremble from their enclosures, of Jehovah our God they are afraid, yea they are afraid of thee. Who is a God like thee, taking away iniquity, and passing by the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? He hath not retained forever his anger, because he delighteth in kindness. He doth turn back, he pityeth us, he doth subdue our iniquities, and thou castest into the depths of the sea all their sins. Thou givest truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham, that thou hast sworn to our fathers, from the days of antiquity. The End of the Book of Micah The End of the Books of Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah, from the Young's Literal Translation of the Bible. Recording by Mark Penfold