18 “The Levitical kohanim, all the tribe of Levi, are to have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They are to eat the offerings made to Adonai by fire as His inheritance. ^{[a] 2} They will have no inheritance among their brothers—Adonai is their inheritance, just as He promised them. ³ So this will be the share due to the kohanim from the people—from those who offer a sacrifice, whether a bull or sheep, they are to give the kohen the shoulder, two cheeks, and the stomach. ⁴ The firstfruits of your grain, of your new wine, of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you are to give him. ⁵ For Adonai your God has chosen him from all your tribes to stand and serve in the Name of Adonai—him and his sons forever.

Nineveh Repents

3 Now the word of Adonai came to Jonah a second time, saying, ² “Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out to it the proclamation that I am telling you.”

³ So Jonah rose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Adonai. Now Nineveh was a great city to God—the length of a three day journey. ⁴ So Jonah began to come into the city for one day’s journey, and he cried out saying: “Another forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown!”

⁵ Then the people of Nineveh believed God and called for a fast and wore sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least of them. ⁶ When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. ⁷ He made a proclamation saying:

“In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, no man or beast, herd or flock, may taste anything. They must not graze nor drink water. ⁸ But cover man and beast with sackcloth. Let them cry out to God with urgency. Let each one turn from his evil way and from the violence in his hands. ⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent, and turn back from his burning anger, so that we may not perish.”

¹⁰ When God saw their deeds—that they turned from their wicked ways—God relented from the calamity that He said He would do to them, and did not do it.

Jonah’s Displeasure at God’s Mercy

4 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he resented it. ² So he prayed to Adonai and said, “Please, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my own country? That’s what I anticipated, fleeing to Tarshish—for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and full of kindness, and relenting over calamity. ³ So please, Adonai, take my soul from me—because better is my death than my life.”

⁴ Yet Adonai said, “Is it good for you to be so angry?”

⁵ So Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. There He made a sukkah and he sat under it, in the shade, until he saw what would happen in the city. ⁶ Then Adonai God prepared a plant and it grew up over Jonah, to give shade over his head to spare him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But God at dawn the next day prepared a worm that crippled the plant and it withered away. ⁸ When the sun rose, God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint. So he implored that his soul would die, saying, “My death would be better than my life!”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “Is it good for you to be so angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said, “I am angry enough to die!”

¹⁰ But Adonai said, “You have pity on the plant for which you did no labor or make it grow, that appeared overnight and perished overnight. So shouldn’t I have pity on Nineveh—the great city that has in it more than 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left—as well as many animals?”

Yeshua, the Ruach of Truth

4 Loved ones, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. ^{[a] 2} You know the Ruach Elohim by this—every spirit that acknowledges that Messiah Yeshua has come in human flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Yeshua is not from God. This is the spirit of the anti-messiah, which you have heard is coming and now is already in the world. ⁴ You are from God, children, and you have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world, so they speak from the world and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God; whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

God’s Life-Giving Spirit of Love

⁷ Loved ones, let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ The love of God was revealed among us by this—that God sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ This is love—not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atonement for our sins.

¹¹ Loved ones, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God.^[b] If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is made perfect in us. ¹³ We know that we abide in Him and He in us by this—because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ We have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Yeshua is Ben-Elohim, God abides in him and he abides in God. ¹⁶ So we have come to know and trust in the love that God has for us. God is love. Now whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

God’s Fulfilling Love

¹⁷ In this way, love is made perfect among us, so that we should have boldness on the Day of Judgment. For just as He is, so also are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and the one who fears has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love, because He first loved us.

Love God—Love God’s Family

²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹ And this commandment we have from Him: that the one who loves God should also love his brother.^[c]