Chapter
1
1: Now
the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,
2: "Go
at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their
wickedness has come up before me."
3: But
Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down
to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on
board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4: But
the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon
the sea that the ship threatened to break up.
5: Then
the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that
was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had
gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep.
6: The
captain came and said to him, "What are you doing sound asleep? Get up,
call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not
perish."
7: The
sailors said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, so that we may
know on whose account this calamity has come upon us." So they cast lots,
and the lot fell on Jonah.
8: Then
they said to him, "Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is
your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what
people are you?"
9: "I
am a Hebrew," he replied. "I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who
made the sea and the dry land."
10: Then
the men were even more afraid, and said to him, "What is this that you
have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the
Lord, because he had told them so.
11: Then
they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down
for us?" For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous.
12: He
said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will
quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has
come upon you."
13: Nevertheless
the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the
sea grew more and more stormy against them.
14: Then
they cried out to the Lord, "Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish
on account of this man's life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for
you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you."
15: So
they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its
raging.
16: Then
the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and
made vows.
17: But
the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly
of the fish three days and three nights.
Chapter
2
1: Then
Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,
2: saying,
"I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the
belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
3: You
cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows passed over me.
4: Then
I said, "I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon
your holy temple?'
5: The
waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my
head
6: at
the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me
forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God.
7: As
my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you, into
your holy temple.
8: Those
who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.
9: But
I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I
will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!"
10: Then
the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
Chapter
3
1: The
word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying,
2: "Get
up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell
you."
3: So
Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now
Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across.
4: Jonah
began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty
days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
5: And
the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great
and small, put on sackcloth.
6: When
the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his
robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7: Then
he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his
nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They
shall not feed, nor shall they drink water.
8: Human
beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily
to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in
their hands.
9:Who
knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger,
so that we do not perish."
10: When
God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his
mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did
not do it.
Chapter
4
1: But
this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.
2: He
prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was
still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I
knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.
3: And
now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than
to live."
4: And
the Lord said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"
5: Then
Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for
himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become
of the city.
6: The
Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over
his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the
bush.
7: But
when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so
that it withered.
8:When
the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the
head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said,
"It is better for me to die than to live."
9: But
God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?"
And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die."
10: Then
the Lord said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not
labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in
a night.
11: And
should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are
more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right
hand from their left, and also many animals?"
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