Jonah

Chapter 1

1:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
1:2 “Arise, go immediately to Nineveh the great city and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
1:3 But Jonah arose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
1:4 The LORD hurled a powerful wind upon the sea
and there was a violent storm upon the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
1:5 Then the sailors became afraid and each man cried to his own god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold [lower deck] of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.
1:6 So the [ship’s] captain approached him and said,
“What are you doing sleeping? Get up, call on your god.
Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
1:7 Each man [sailor] said to his mate, “Come and let us cast lots so we may know on whose account this calamity is upon us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
1:8 Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity come upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
1:9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and it is the LORD God of heaven I fear [worship], who made the sea and the dry land.”
1:10 Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, “What is this you have done?” (For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.)
1:11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea may calm down for us?” — for the sea was growing increasingly stormy.
1:12 So he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.”
1:13 Instead, the men rowed hard to return to land but they could not, for the sea and the storm was growing worse against them.
1:14 Then they called on the LORD and said,“Oh, please, LORD, don’t let us perish on account of the life of this man and do not put on us innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as You have pleased.”
1:15 So they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.
1:16 Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
1:17 Now the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Chapter 2

2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish,
2:2 and he said,
“I called out from my distress to the LORD,
and he answered me;
from the belly of Sheol, I cried out for help
and you heard my voice.
2:3 “For you had cast me
into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the current engulfed me.
All your breakers and billows [massive waves] passed over me.
2:4 And I said [thought], I have been banished from your sight,
yet, I will look again toward your holy temple.
2:5 Waters encompass me up to my life [nephesh-to the point of death],
the deep ocean surrounds me,
seaweeds are wrapped around my head.
2:6 I went down to the very bottoms of the mountains;
The earth with its bars behind me [closed me in] forever,
but you have brought my life up from the pit,
LORD God.
2:7 When my life [nephesh] was fainting away,
I remembered the LORD
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
2:8 Those who pay regard to [worship] idols of vanity
abandon faithfulness [to the LORD].
2:9 But with a voice of thanksgiving
I will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed [promised to sacrifice], I will pay.
Salvation [belongs] to the LORD.
2:10 Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

Chapter 3

3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying,
3:2 “Arise, go immediately to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, the proclamation which I tell you.”
3:3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was a exceedingly great city, a three day walk through it.
3:4 When Jonah began to enter the city just a walk of one day, he cried out and said, “In forty days Nineveh will be overthrown.”
3:5 Then the men [people] of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
3:6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.
3:7 He issued a proclamation and he said,
“In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles:
No man or beast, the cattle or sheep is to taste
anything. They must not to eat and they are not to drink water.
3:8 “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and call earnestly upon God and let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands [they do].
3:9 “Who knows, God may turn and change his mind
and turn from his fierce anger that we might not die.
3:10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, God changed his mind about the disaster which he had declared to bring upon them
and he did not do it.

Chapter 4

4:1 This greatly displeased Jonah and he became very angry.
4:2 He prayed to the LORD and said,“Please LORD, was not this what I said [thought] while I was still in my own country? Therefore, I before [originally] fled to Tarshish because I knew God, that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning disaster [on the Ninevites].
4:3 Now, LORD, take my life from me, for death is better for me than life.
4:4 The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”
4:5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. There he made for himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.
4:6 So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade above his head to deliver him from his discomfort and Jonah was very happy about the plant.
4:7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant so that it withered.
4:8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah and he grew faint and he asked for his life to pass away, and said, “Death is better than my life.”
4:9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be so angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”
4:10 The LORD said, “You were troubled about this plant,
for which you did not work for [tend] or make it grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.
4:11 Should I not be even more troubled about Nineveh,
the great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right from their left as well as many animals.