Nahal Hever Minor Prophets

Language: Greek

Date:  About 25 B.C.

Location: Nahal Hever

Contents: (English Bible numbering) Jonah 1:14-17; 2:1-6; 3:1-10; 4:1-2, 5; Micah 1:1-8; 2:7-8; 3:5-6; 4:3-10; 5:2-7; Nahum 1:13-14; 2:4-11; 3:3-16; Habakkuk 1:5-17; 2:1-8, 13-20; 3:8-15; Zephaniah 1:1-6, 13-18; 2:9-10; 3:6-7; Zechariah 1:1-4, 12-14, 19-21; 2:3-5, 7-8, 12-13; 3:

 

Jonah 1

14 Therefore they cried to Yahweh, and said, “We beg you, Yahweh, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, Yahweh, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they took up Jonah, and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging. 16 Then the men feared Yahweh[1] exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh, and made vows.

17 Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

 

Jonah 2

1 Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, out of the fish’s belly. 2 He said,

“I called because of my affliction to Yahweh.

He answered me.

Out of the belly of Sheol I cried.

You heard my voice.

3 For you threw me into the depths,

in the heart of the seas.

The flood was all around me.

All your waves and your billows passed over me.

4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight;

yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

5 The waters surrounded me,

even to the soul.

The deep was around me.

The weeds were wrapped around my head.[2]

6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.

The earth barred me in forever:

yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God.

[..]

Jonah 3

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”

3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to Yahweh’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. 4 Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty[3] days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”

5 The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.

[..]

7 He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; 8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them him turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”

10 God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.

 

Jonah 4

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 He 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.

[..]

5 Then 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.

 

Micah 1

1 Yahweh’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.

2 Hear, 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.

3 For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place,

and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

4 The 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?

6 Therefore 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.

7 All 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.”

 

8 For 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.

[..]

Micah 2

7 Shall 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?”

8 But 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.

 [..]

Micah 3

5 Yahweh says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:

6 “Therefore night is over you, with no vision,

and it is dark to you, that you may not divine;

and the sun will go down on the prophets,

and the day will be black over them.

[..]

Micah 4

3 and he will judge between many peoples,

and will decide concerning strong nations afar off.

They will beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not lift up sword against nation,

neither will they learn war any more.

4 But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree;

and no one will make them afraid:

For the mouth of Yahweh of Armies has spoken. 5 Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods;

but we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever.

6 “In that day,” says Yahweh,

“I will assemble that which is lame,

and I will gather that which is driven away,

and that which I have afflicted;

7 and I will make that which was lame a remnant,

and that which was cast far off a strong nation:

and Yahweh will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever.”

8 You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion,

to you it will come,

yes, the former dominion will come,

the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 Now why do you cry out aloud?

Is there no king in you?

Has your counselor perished,

that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?

10 Be in pain, and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion,

like a woman in travail;

for now you will go out of the city,

and will dwell in the field,

and will come even to Babylon.

There you will be rescued.

There Yahweh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

[..]

Micah 5

2 But you, Bethlehem house of Ephrathah,

being small among the clans thousands[4] of Judah,

out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel;

whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.

3 Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth.

Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.

4 He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh,

in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God:

and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.

5 He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land,

and when he marches through our fortresses,

then we will raise against him seven shepherds,

and eight leaders of men.

6 They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword,

and the land of Nimrod in its gates.

He will deliver us from the Assyrian,

when he invades our land,

and when he marches within our border.

7 The remnant of Jacob will be among many peoples,

like dew from Yahweh,

like showers on the grass,

that don’t wait for man,

nor wait for the sons of men. 

[..]

Nahum 1

13 Now I will break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart.” 14 Yahweh has commanded concerning you: “No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, I will cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”

[..]

Nahum 2

4 The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the wide ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings. 5 He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place. 6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. 7 It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her servants moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts. 8 But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one looks back. 9 Take the plunder of silver. Take the plunder of gold, for there is no end of the store, the glory of all goodly furniture.

[..]

12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill, and his dens den with prey. 13 “Behold, I am against you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

 

Nahum 3

3 the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies,

[..]

6 I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle. 7 It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her?’ Where will I seek comforters for you?”

8 Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea? 9 Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were her helpers. 10 Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. 11 You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy. 12 All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. 13 Behold, your troops among you are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars. 14 Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong. 15 There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust. 16 You have increased your merchants more than like the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away.

[..]

Habakkuk 1

5 “Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you. 6 For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. 7 They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour. 9 All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand. 10 Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it. 11 Then he sweeps by like the wind, and goes on. He is indeed guilty, whose strength is his god.”

[..]

14 and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? 15 He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad. 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life bread is luxurious, and his food is good. 17 Will he therefore continually empty his net sword, and kill the nations without mercy?

 

Habakkuk 2

1 I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

2 Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. 3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won’t delay. 4 Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. 5 Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. An arrogant man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can’t be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples. 6 Won’t all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches loads himself by extortion with thick mud! How long?’ 7 Won’t your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim? 8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it.

[..]

13 Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity? 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Yahweh’s glory, as the waters cover the sea.

15 “Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies! 16 You are filled with shame, and not glory. You will also drink, and be exposed! The cup of Yahweh’s right hand will come around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. 17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals, which made them afraid; because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them it.

18 “What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies lying appearance, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols? 19 Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake!’ or to the mute stone, ‘Arise!’ Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all within it. 20 But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!”

 

Habakkuk 3

8 Was Yahweh displeased with the rivers?

Was your anger against the rivers,

or your wrath against the sea,

that you rode on your horses,

on your chariots of salvation?

9 You uncovered your bow.

You called for your sworn arrows.

Selah.

You He split the earth with rivers.

10 The mountains saw you, and were afraid.

The storm of waters passed by.

The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.

11 The sun and moon stood still in the sky,

at the light of your arrows as they went,

at the shining of your glittering spear.

12 You marched through the land in wrath.

You threshed the nations in anger.

13 You went out for the salvation of your people,

for the salvation of your anointed.

You crushed the head of the land of wickedness.

You stripped them head to foot.

Selah.

 

14 You pierced the heads of his warriors with their own spears.

They came as a whirlwind to scatter me us,

gloating as if to devour the wretched in secret.

15 You trampled the sea with your horses,

churning mighty waters.

[..]

Zephaniah 1

1 Yahweh’s word which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah. 2 I will utterly sweep away everything from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh. 3 I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh. 4 I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests, 5 those who worship the army of the sky on the housetops, those who worship and swear by Yahweh and also swear by Malcam, 6 those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.

[..]

13 Their wealth will become a plunder, and their houses a desolation. Yes, they will build houses, but won’t inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, but won’t drink their wine. 14 The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly. 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, 16 a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high battlements. 17 I will bring distress on men, that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh, and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.

 

Zephaniah 2

9 Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them. 10 This they will have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Yahweh of Armies.

[..]

Zephaniah 3

6 I have cut off nations. Their battlements are desolate. I have made their streets waste, so that no one passes by. Their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant. 7 I said, “Just fear me. Receive correction, so that her dwelling spring won’t be cut off, according to all that I have appointed concerning her.” But they rose early and corrupted all their doings.

[..]

Zechariah 1

1  In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, 2 “Yahweh was very displeased with your fathers. 3 Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies. 4 Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.

[..]

12 Then Yahweh’s angel replied, “O Yahweh of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?”

13 Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. 14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

[..]

19 I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?”

He answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

20 Yahweh showed me four craftsmen. 21 Then I asked, “What are these coming to do?”

He said, “These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”

 

Zechariah 2

3 Behold, the angel who talked with me went out, and another angel went out to meet him, 4 and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. 5 For I,’ says Yahweh, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her.

[..]

7 ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’ 8 For Yahweh of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.

[..]

12 Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”

 

Zechariah 3

1 He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. 2 Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”

3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. 4 He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.”

5 I said, “Let them set a clean turban on his head.”

So they set a clean turban on his head, and clothed him; and Yahweh’s angel was standing by. 6 Yahweh’s angel protested to Joshua, saying, 7 “Yahweh of Armies says: ‘If you will walk in my ways, and if you will follow my instructions, then you also shall judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you a place of access among these who stand by.

[..]

Zechariah 8

19 Yahweh of Armies says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months shall be for the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.”

20 Yahweh of Armies says: “Many peoples, and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come; 21 and the inhabitants of one shall go to another, saying, ‘Let’s go speedily to entreat the favor of Yahweh, and to seek Yahweh of Armies. I will go also.’

[..]

23 Yahweh of Armies says: “In those days, ten men will take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, they will take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, ‘We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ ”

 

Zechariah 9

1 A revelation.

Yahweh’s word is against the land of Hadrach,

and will rest upon Damascus;

for the eye of man

and of all the tribes of Israel is toward Yahweh;

2 and Hamath, also, which borders on it;

Tyre and Sidon, because they are very wise.

3 Tyre built herself a stronghold,

and heaped up silver like the dust,

and fine gold like the mire of the streets.

4 Behold, the Lord will dispossess her,

and he will strike her power in the sea;

and she will be devoured with fire.

5 Ashkelon will see it, and fear;

Gaza also, and will writhe in agony;

as will Ekron, for her expectation will be disappointed;

and the king will perish from Gaza,

and Ashkelon will not be inhabited.