“Come on! Let’s return to the Lord! He himself has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us! He has injured us, but he will bandage our wounds!

Ephraim has been like a dove, easily deceived and lacking discernment. They called to Egypt for help; they turned to Assyria for protection.

I will throw my bird net over them while they are flying, I will bring them down like birds in the sky; I will discipline them when I hear them flocking together.

But the more I summoned them, the farther they departed from me. They sacrificed to the Baal idols and burned incense to images.

He will roar like a lion, and they will follow the Lord; when he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.

Therefore they will disappear like the morning mist, like early morning dew that evaporates, like chaff that is blown away from a threshing floor, like smoke that disappears through an open window.

His young shoots will grow; his splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. Each one proceeds on his course; they do not alter their path.

They do not jostle one another; each of them marches straight ahead. They burst through the city defenses and do not break ranks.

Then the Lord took me from tending flocks and gave me this commission, ‘Go! Prophesy to my people Israel!’

“Go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention.”

Because the storm was growing worse and worse, they said to him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

Instead, they tried to row back to land, but they were not able to do so because the storm kept growing worse and worse.

But you are the ones who will be forced to leave! For this land is not secure! Sin will thoroughly destroy it!

The sun and moon stand still in their courses; the flash of your arrows drives them away, the bright light of your lightning-quick spear.

I will bring distress on the people and they will stumble like blind men, for they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dirt; their flesh will be scattered like manure.

Then the man standing among the myrtle trees spoke up and said, “These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk about on the earth.”

I asked the messenger who was speaking to me, “Where are they taking the basket?”

Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed with all kinds of gifts from his master at his disposal. He journeyed to the region of Aram Naharaim and the city of Nahor.

You must not eat anything that crawls on its belly or anything that walks on all fours or on any number of legs of all the swarming things that swarm on the land, because they are detestable.