Jonah

Chapter 1

¹The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ²Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim judgment upon it; for their wickedness has come before Me.

³Jonah, however, started out to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s service. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went aboard to sail with the others to Tarshish, away from the service of the Lord.

⁴But the Lord cast a mighty wind upon the sea, and such a great tempest came upon the sea that the ship was in danger of breaking up. ⁵In their fright, the sailors cried out, each to his own god; and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make it lighter for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the vessel where he lay down and fell asleep. ⁶The captain went over to him and cried out, “How can you be sleeping so soundly! Up, call upon your god! Perhaps the god will be kind to us and we will not perish.”

⁷The men said to one another, “Let us cast lots and find out on whose account this misfortune has come upon us.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸They said to him, “Tell us, you who have brought this misfortune upon us, what is your business? Where have 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 both sea and land.” ¹⁰The men were greatly terrified, and they asked him, “What have you done?” And when the men learned that he was fleeing from the service of the Lord—for so he told them—¹¹they said to him, “What must we do to you to make the sea calm around us?” For the sea was growing more and more stormy. ¹²He answered, “Heave me overboard, and the sea will calm down for you; for I know that this terrible storm came upon you on my account.” ¹³Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to regain the shore, but they could not, for the sea was growing more and more stormy about them. ¹⁴Then they cried out to the Lord: “Oh, please, Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not hold us guilty of killing an innocent person! For You, O Lord, by Your will, have brought this about.” ¹⁵And they heaved Jonah overboard, and the sea stopped raging.

¹⁶The men feared the Lord greatly; they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows.

Chapter 2

¹The Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the fish’s belly three days and three nights. ²Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. [ . . . ]

¹¹The Lord commanded the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon dry land.

Chapter 3

¹The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ²“Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it what I tell you.” ³Jonah went at once to Nineveh in accordance with the Lord’s command.

Nineveh was an enormously large city a three days’ walk across. ⁴Jonah started out and made his way into the city the distance of one day’s walk, and proclaimed: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

⁵The people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and great and small alike put on sackcloth. ⁶When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷And he had the word cried through Nineveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles: No man or beast—of flock or herd—shall taste anything! They shall not graze, and they shall not drink water! ⁸They shall be covered with sackcloth—man and beast—and shall cry mightily to God. Let everyone turn back from his evil ways and from the injustice of which he is guilty. ⁹Who knows but that God may turn and relent? He may turn back from His wrath, so that we do not perish.”

¹⁰God saw what they did, how they were turning back from their evil ways. And God renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon them, and did not carry it out.

Chapter 4

¹This displeased Jonah greatly, and he was grieved. ²He prayed to the Lord, saying, “O Lord! Isn’t this just what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I fled beforehand to Tarshish. For I know that You are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, renouncing punishment. ³Please, Lord, take my life, for I would rather die than live.” ⁴The Lord replied, “Are you that deeply grieved?”

⁵Now Jonah had left the city and found a place east of the city. He made a booth there and sat under it in the shade, until he should see what happened to the city. ⁶The Lord God provided a ricinus plant, which grew up over Jonah, to provide shade for his head and save him from discomfort. Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷But the next day at dawn God provided a worm, which attacked the plant so that it withered. ⁸And when the sun rose, God provided a sultry east wind; the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, and he became faint. He begged for death, saying, “I would rather die than live.” ⁹Then God said to Jonah, “Are you so deeply grieved about the plant?” “Yes,” he replied, “so deeply that I want to die.”

¹⁰Then the Lord said: “You cared about the plant, which you did not work for and which you did not grow, which appeared overnight and perished over-night. ¹¹And should not I care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well!”