| 1:2 |
“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickednessevil has confrontedcome Meup before me.” |
| 1:3 |
However, Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, from the Lord’s presence. |
| 1:4 |
ThenBut the Lord hurledthrew a violentgreat wind ononto the sea, and such a violentgreat storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. |
| 1:8 |
Then they said to him, “Tell us who is to blame for this trouble we’re in. What is your business, and where are you from? What is your country, and what people are you from?” |
| 1:9 |
He answered them, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship Yahwehthe Lord, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.” |
| 1:10 |
Then the men were evenseized moreby afraida great fear and said to him, “What ishave this you’ve done?” The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord’s presence, because he had told them. |
| 1:11 |
So they said to him, “What should we do to you toso calmthat thisthe sea that’swill againstcalm down for us?” For the sea was getting worse and worse. |
| 1:12 |
He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it maywill quietcalm down for you, for I know that I’m to blame for this violentgreat storm that is against you.” |
| 1:14 |
So they called out to the Lord:, “Please, YahwehLord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For Youyou, YahwehLord, have done just as Youyou pleased.” |
| 1:16 |
The men fearedwere seized by great fear of the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. |
| 1:17 |
NowThe the Lord had appointed a hugegreat fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. |
| 2:1 |
Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from insidethe belly of the fish: |
| 2:2 |
I called to the Lord in my distress, and Hehe answered me. I cried out for help infrom thedeep bellyinside of Sheol; Youyou heard my voice. |
| 2:3 |
YouWhen you threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, and the current overcame me. All Youryour breakers and Youryour billows swept over me. |
| 2:4 |
ButAnd I said:, “I have been banished from Youryour sight, yet I will look once more toward Youryour holy temple..” |
| 2:5 |
The waterswater engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. |
| 2:6 |
I sank to the foundations of the mountains;, the earth’s withgates itsshut prison bars closed behind me forever! ButThen Youyou raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God! |
| 2:7 |
As my life was fading away, I remembered Yahweh.the MyLord, and my prayer came to Youyou, to Youryour holy temple. |
| 2:8 |
Those who clingcherish to worthless idols forsakeabandon their faithful love, |
| 2:9 |
but as for me, I will sacrifice to Youyou with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation isbelongs fromto the Lord!. |
| 3:1 |
ThenThe the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: |
| 3:3 |
So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely largegreat city, a three-day walk. |
| 3:4 |
Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In 40forty days Nineveh will be demolished!” |
| 3:5 |
TheThen menthe people of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth — from the greatest of them to the least. |
| 3:6 |
When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, putcovered onhimself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. |
| 3:7 |
Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No manperson or beastanimal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. |
| 3:8 |
Furthermore, both manpeople and beastanimals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from thehis violence he is doingwrongdoing. |
| 3:9 |
Who knows? God may turn and relent; Hehe may turn from Hishis burning anger so that we will not perish. |
| 3:10 |
Then God saw their actions — that they had turned from their evil ways — so God relented from the disaster Hehe had threatened tothem do to themwith. And Hehe did not do it. |
| 4:1 |
But Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. |
| 4:2 |
He prayed to the Lord:, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that Youyou are a mercifulgracious and compassionate God, slow to become angryanger, richabounding in faithful love, and Oneone who relents from sending disaster. |
| 4:3 |
And now, Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” |
| 4:5 |
Jonah left the city and satfound downa place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. |
| 4:6 |
Then the Lord God appointed a plant, and it grew upover Jonah to provide shade overfor Jonah’shis head to easerescue him from his discomforttrouble. Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. |
| 4:8 |
As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down so much on Jonah’s head so much that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.” |
| 4:9 |
Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “Yes,”, it’s right!” he replied. “It is right. I’m angry enough to die!” |
| 4:10 |
SoAnd the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. |
| 4:11 |
ShouldSo may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?” |