Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God.

²He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

³You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.

⁴I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

⁵The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

⁶To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, LORD my God, brought my life up from the pit.

⁷“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

⁸“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

⁹But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’ ”

¹⁰And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

¹Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:

²“Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

³Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.

⁴Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

⁵The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

⁶When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.

⁷This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.

⁸But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

⁹Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

¹⁰When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

¹But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.

²He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

³Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴But the LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.

⁶Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.

⁷But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.

⁸When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

⁹But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

¹⁰But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.

¹¹And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

¹The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

²Hear, you peoples, all of you, listen, earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign LORD may bear witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

³Look! The LORD is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.

⁴The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.

⁵All this is because of Jacob’s transgression, because of the sins of the people of Israel. What is Jacob’s transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is Judah’s high place? Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶“Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour her stones into the valley and lay bare her foundations.

⁷All her idols will be broken to pieces; all her temple gifts will be burned with fire; I will destroy all her images. Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes, as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used.”

⁸Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl.

⁹For Samaria’s plague is incurable; it has spread to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself.

¹⁰Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all. In Beth Ophrah roll in the dust.

¹¹Pass by naked and in shame, you who live in Shaphir. Those who live in Zaanan will not come out. Beth Ezel is in mourning; it no longer protects you.

¹²Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain, waiting for relief, because disaster has come from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³You who live in Lachish, harness fast horses to the chariot. You are where the sin of Daughter Zion began, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

¹⁴Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth Gath. The town of Akzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will bring a conqueror against you who live in Mareshah. The nobles of Israel will flee to Adullam.

¹⁶Shave your head in mourning for the children in whom you delight; make yourself as bald as the vulture, for they will go from you into exile.

¹Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.

²They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud people of their homes, they rob them of their inheritance.

³Therefore, the LORD says: “I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.

⁴In that day people will ridicule you; they will taunt you with this mournful song: ‘We are utterly ruined; my people’s possession is divided up. He takes it from me! He assigns our fields to traitors.’ ”

⁵Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD to divide the land by lot.

⁶“Do not prophesy,” their prophets say. “Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”

⁷You descendants of Jacob, should it be said, “Does the LORD become impatient? Does he do such things?” “Do not my words do good to the one whose ways are upright?

⁸Lately my people have risen up like an enemy. You strip off the rich robe from those who pass by without a care, like men returning from battle.

⁹You drive the women of my people from their pleasant homes. You take away my blessing from their children forever.

¹⁰Get up, go away! For this is not your resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy.

¹¹If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ that would be just the prophet for this people!

¹²“I will surely gather all of you, Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people.

¹³The One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their King will pass through before them, the LORD at their head.”

¹Then I said, “Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel. Should you not embrace justice,

²you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones;

³who eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?”

⁴Then they will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.

⁵This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead my people astray, they proclaim ‘peace’ if they have something to eat, but prepare to wage war against anyone who refuses to feed them.

⁶Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them.

⁷The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God.”

⁸But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin.

⁹Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right;

¹⁰who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness.

¹¹Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the LORD’s support and say, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us.”

¹²Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

¹In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.

²Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

³He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

⁴Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.

⁵All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

⁶“In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief.

⁷I will make the lame my remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.

⁸As for you, watchtower of the flock, stronghold of Daughter Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem.”

⁹Why do you now cry aloud— have you no king? Has your ruler perished, that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?

¹⁰Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued. There the LORD will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies.

¹¹But now many nations are gathered against you. They say, “Let her be defiled, let our eyes gloat over Zion!”

¹²But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.

¹³“Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion, for I will give you horns of iron; I will give you hooves of bronze, and you will break to pieces many nations.” You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

¹Marshal your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod.

²“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

³Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.

⁴He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.

⁵And he will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses. We will raise against them seven shepherds, even eight commanders,

⁶who will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with drawn sword. He will deliver us from the Assyrians when they invade our land and march across our borders.

⁷The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for anyone or depend on man.

⁸The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, which mauls and mangles as it goes, and no one can rescue.

⁹Your hand will be lifted up in triumph over your enemies, and all your foes will be destroyed.

¹⁰“In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will destroy your horses from among you and demolish your chariots.

¹¹I will destroy the cities of your land and tear down all your strongholds.

¹²I will destroy your witchcraft and you will no longer cast spells.

¹³I will destroy your idols and your sacred stones from among you; you will no longer bow down to the work of your hands.

¹⁴I will uproot from among you your Asherah poles when I demolish your cities.

¹⁵I will take vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations that have not obeyed me.”

¹Listen to what the LORD says: “Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say.

²“Hear, you mountains, the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel.

³“My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.

⁴I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.

⁵My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.”

⁶With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

⁷Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

⁹Listen! The LORD is calling to the city— and to fear your name is wisdom— “Heed the rod and the One who appointed it.

¹⁰Am I still to forget your ill-gotten treasures, you wicked house, and the short ephah, which is accursed?

¹¹Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights?

¹²Your rich people are violent; your inhabitants are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully.

¹³Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins.

¹⁴You will eat but not be satisfied; your stomach will still be empty. You will store up but save nothing, because what you save I will give to the sword.

¹⁵You will plant but not harvest; you will press olives but not use the oil, you will crush grapes but not drink the wine.

¹⁶You have observed the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their traditions. Therefore I will give you over to ruin and your people to derision; you will bear the scorn of the nations.”

¹What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave.

²The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets.

³Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire— they all conspire together.

⁴The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day God visits you has come, the day your watchmen sound the alarm. Now is the time of your confusion.

⁵Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace guard the words of your lips.

⁶For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.

⁷But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

⁸Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.

⁹Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD’s wrath, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.

¹⁰Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame, she who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will see her downfall; even now she will be trampled underfoot like mire in the streets.

¹¹The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries.

¹²In that day people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

¹³The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds.

¹⁴Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasturelands. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago.

¹⁵“As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders.”

¹⁶Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. They will put their hands over their mouths and their ears will become deaf.

¹⁷They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the LORD our God and will be afraid of you.

¹⁸Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.

¹⁹You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

²⁰You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.

¹A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

²The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.

³The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.

⁴He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.

⁵The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.

⁶Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.

⁷The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him,

⁸but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.

⁹Whatever they plot against the LORD he will bring to an end; trouble will not come a second time.

¹⁰They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine; they will be consumed like dry stubble.

¹¹From you, Nineveh, has one come forth who plots evil against the LORD and devises wicked plans.

¹²This is what the LORD says: “Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be destroyed and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more.

¹³Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away.”

¹⁴The LORD has given a command concerning you, Nineveh: “You will have no descendants to bear your name. I will destroy the images and idols that are in the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are vile.”

¹⁵Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, Judah, and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you; they will be completely destroyed.

¹An attacker advances against you, Nineveh. Guard the fortress, watch the road, brace yourselves, marshal all your strength!

²The LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines.

³The shields of the soldiers are red; the warriors are clad in scarlet. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day they are made ready; the spears of juniper are brandished.

⁴The chariots storm through the streets, rushing back and forth through the squares. They look like flaming torches; they dart about like lightning.

⁵Nineveh summons her picked troops, yet they stumble on their way. They dash to the city wall; the protective shield is put in place.

⁶The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses.

⁷It is decreed that Nineveh be exiled and carried away. Her female slaves moan like doves and beat on their breasts.

⁸Nineveh is like a pool whose water is draining away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one turns back.

⁹Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! The supply is endless, the wealth from all its treasures!

¹⁰She is pillaged, plundered, stripped! Hearts melt, knees give way, bodies tremble, every face grows pale.

¹¹Where now is the lions’ den, the place where they fed their young, where the lion and lioness went, and the cubs, with nothing to fear?

¹²The lion killed enough for his cubs and strangled the prey for his mate, filling his lairs with the kill and his dens with the prey.

¹³“I am against you,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will leave you no prey on the earth. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

¹Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!

²The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots!

³Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses—

⁴all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.

⁵“I am against you,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.

⁶I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.

⁷All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?”

⁸Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall.

⁹Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.

¹⁰Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.

¹¹You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy.

¹²All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.

¹³Look at your troops— they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates.

¹⁴Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork!

¹⁵There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down— they will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, multiply like locusts!

¹⁶You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away.

¹⁷Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day— but when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.

¹⁸King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.

¹⁹Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?