Jonah 1
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.
Jonah 2
1:1 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.
Jonah 3
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.
Jonah 4
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?"
