Dec 21st

“Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out to it this very call which I am going to speak to you.”

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.

Then Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk; and he called out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

And the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.

Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes.

And he cried out and said,

“In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, animal, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat, and do not let them drink water.

But both man and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God with their strength that each may turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands.

Who knows, God may turn and relent and turn away from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them.

But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry.

And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil.

So now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”

And Yahweh said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. And there he made a booth for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.

So Yahweh God appointed a plant, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil. And Jonah was extremely glad about the plant.

But God appointed a worm at the breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and it dried up.

Then it happened that as the sun rose up, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun struck down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and asked with all his soul to die and said, “Death is better to me than life.”

Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”

Then Yahweh said, “You had pity on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came to be overnight and perished overnight.

So should I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

The word of Yahweh which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he beheld concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Therefore thus says Yahweh,

And the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. And on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.

And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions.

And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle.

And they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months.

They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.

One woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.

Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who have been bound at the great river Euphrates.”

And the four angels were released, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, so that they would kill a third of mankind.

And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.

And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sit on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths come fire and smoke and brimstone.

A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.

For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads, and with them they do harm.

And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

And they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their sexual immorality nor of their thefts.

Then I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire;

and he had in his hand a little scroll which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the earth,

and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. And when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices.

And when the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.”

Then the angel, whom I saw standing on the sea and on the earth, lifted up his right hand to heaven,

and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there will be delay no longer,

but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He proclaimed good news to His slaves, the prophets.

Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”

So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little scroll. And he *said to me, “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”

And I took the little scroll out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.

And they *said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”