Jonah Flees the Presence of the Lord
1 Now the word of the Lord came to aJonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to bNineveh, that cgreat city, and call out against it, for their evil1 has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose 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 the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, daway from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and ethere was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then fthe mariners were afraid, and each gcried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and hwas fast asleep.
15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and pthe sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men qfeared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
A Great Fish Swallows Jonah
17 1 And the Lord rappointed2 a great fish to swallow up Jonah. sAnd Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah’s Prayer
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
5 cAnd the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The People of Nineveh Repent
6 The word reached1 the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither dman nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them ecall out mightily to God. Let everyone fturn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 gWho knows? hGod may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God irelented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God mappointed a plant1 and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.2 So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching neast wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that ogreat city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, pand also much cattle?”
