5 | Jonah
Jonah | 5
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’ ”
And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto
dry land.
T
hen the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to
the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give
you.”
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now
Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming,
“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites
believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the
greatest to the l east, put on sackcloth.
When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose
from his t hrone, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sack
cloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued
in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or f locks, taste anything;
do not let them eat or d
rink. But let people and animals be cov
ered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let
them give up their evil ways and t heir violence. Who knows?
God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his f ierce
anger so that we will not perish.”
When God saw what they did and how they t urned from t heir
evil ways, he relented and did not b
ring on them the destruction he
had threatened.
But to Jonah this seemed very w rong, and he became ang ry. He
rayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was s till at
p
home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew
that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and
abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now,
Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
But the Lord replied, “Is it r ight for you to be angry?”
Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city.
T here he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see
what w
ould happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a l eafy
2:10–4:6
2:10–4:6