Jonah 3-4
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Jonah’s Preaching
3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:(A) 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh(B) and preach(C) the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command.
Now Nineveh was an extremely large city,[a](D) a three-day walk.[b] 4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed,(E) “In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!” 5 The men of Nineveh believed in God.[c] They proclaimed a fast(F) and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.
6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth,(G) and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decree(H) in Nineveh:
By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. 8 Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God.(I) Each must turn from his evil ways(J) and from the violence[d] he is doing.[e] 9 Who knows?(K) God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.(L)
10 Then God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways(M)—so God relented from the disaster(N) He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it.
Jonah’s Anger
4 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.(O) 2 He prayed to the Lord:(P) “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.(Q) I knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God,(R) slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster.(S) 3 And now, Lord, please take my life from me,(T) for it is better for me to die than to live.”(U)
4 The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah left the city and sat down east of it.(V) He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God appointed a plant,[f] and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort.[g] Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. 7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered.(W)
8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind.(X) The sun beat down so much on Jonah’s head(Y) that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”(Z)
9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“Yes,” he replied. “It is right. I’m angry enough to die!”
10 So 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. 11 Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh,(AA) which has more than 120,000 people[h] who cannot distinguish between their right and their left,(AB) as well as many animals?”(AC)
Footnotes
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