The Book of Jonah

A1nd the Word of Jehovah was to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, 2Rise up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it; for their evil has come up before Me. 3But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the face of Jehovah. And he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. And he gave its fare and went down into it in order to go with them to Tarshish, from before the face of Jehovah. 4But Jehovah hurled a great wind into the sea, and there was a great storm in the sea, and the ship was thought to be broken. 5And the sailors were afraid, and each man cried to his god. And they threw out the ship's articles into the sea, to lighten it from upon them. And Jonah had gone down into the recesses of the ship; and he lay down, and was fast asleep. 6And the chief of the seamen came near to him and said to him, What is it to you, one fast sleeping? Rise up, cry out to your god! Perhaps your god will think of us, and we will not perish. 7And they said, each man to his companion, Come and let us make fall lots, that we may know on whose account this evil happened to us. And they made fall the lot, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8And they said to him, Please tell us on account of whom is this evil to us? What is your work? And from where do you come? What is your country, and from what people are you? 9And he said to them, I am a Hebrew. And I fear Jehovah, the God of Heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land. 10And the men feared with great fearing and said to him, What is this you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from before the face of Jehovah, because he had told it to them. 11And they said to him, What shall we do to you that the sea may become calm from on us? For the sea was going on and being stormy. 12And he said to them, Take me up and cast me out into the sea, and the sea will be calmed from being on you. For I know that on account of me this great storm is upon you. 13But the men rowed to return to the dry land, but they were not able, for the sea was going on and being stormy against them. 14And they cried out to Jehovah, and said, We pray, O Jehovah, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not lay innocent blood on us. For You, O Jehovah, have done as You desired. 15And they lifted Jonah up and cast him out into the sea. And the sea stood still from its raging. 16Then the men feared Jehovah with a great fearing, and they offered a sacrifice to Jehovah, and vowed vows. 17And Jehovah had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

A1nd Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God out of the belly of the fish. 2And he said, I cried out to Jehovah from my distress. And He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried out, and You heard my voice. 3For You cast me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, and the current surrounded me; all Your breakers and Your waves passed over me. 4And I said, I am cast off from Your eyes; only I will again look to Your holy temple. 5Waters encompassed me to my soul; the depths closed around me; seaweed was bound to my head. 6I went down to the bases of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever. But You brought up my life from the pit, O Jehovah my God. 7When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Jehovah; and my prayer came to You, to Your holy temple. 8Those who pay heed to vanities of idolatry forsake their mercy; 9but I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will fulfill that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Jehovah! 10And Jehovah spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto the dry land.

A1nd the Word of Jehovah was to Jonah the second time, saying, 2Rise up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out to it the proclamation that I am declaring to you. 3And Jonah rose up and went to Nineveh according to the Word of Jehovah. And Nineveh was a great city to God, of three days' journey. 4And Jonah began to enter a day's journey into the city. And he cried out and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overturned! 5And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast and put on sackclothes, from the greatest even to the least of them. 6And the word touched even to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he passed his robe from him and covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. 7And he cried and said in Nineveh by the decree of the king and of his great ones, saying, Do not let man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them feed nor let them drink water. 8But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. And let them call with strength to God. And let them each man turn back from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their palms. 9Who knows? He may turn, and God may be moved to pity and turn back from the anger of His face, that we will not perish. 10And God saw their deeds, that they turned back from their evil way. And God was moved to pity of the evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it.

B1ut it was a great calamity in the eye of Jonah, and it kindled anger for him. 2And he prayed to Jehovah, and said, Please, O Jehovah, was this not my word while I was on my own land? On account of this at first I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious God and compassionate, slow to anger, and great of mercy, and One who has pity over calamity. 3And now, O Jehovah, please take my life from me. For better is my death than my life. 4And Jehovah said, Is being angry being pleasing for you? 5And Jonah went out from the city and sat on the east of the city. And he made there a booth for himself and sat under it in the shade until he should see what would happen in the city. 6And Jehovah God appointed a plant, and it came up over Jonah to be shade over his head, in order to deliver him from his misery. And Jonah rejoiced over the plant with great joy. 7But God appointed a worm at the rising of the dawn of the morrow, and it struck the plant, and it withered. 8And it happened when the sun shone, God had appointed a scorching east wind; and the sun struck Jonah's head, so that he fainted; and he asked for his life to death. And he said, Better is my death than my life. 9And God said to Jonah, Is it right your being angry and being pleasing for you over the plant? And he said, Being angry and being pleasing is right for me, even to death. 10And Jehovah said, You had pity on the plant for which you did not labor with it, and not you made it grow, which was the son of a night and it perished the son of a night, 11and should I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city in which there is in it more than twelve ten thousands of mankind who do not know between the right and the left hand, and many cattle?