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“Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
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The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
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So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
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He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
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The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
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“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
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Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.
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Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.”
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At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
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He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
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You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.
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The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.
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To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.
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“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
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But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
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“Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
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Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
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Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
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Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
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Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.
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Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.
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When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
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But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
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And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
