Jonah 2:1–3:10

2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:

“I acried out to the Lord because of my affliction,

bAnd He answered me.

“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

And You heard my voice.

3 cFor You cast me into the deep,

Into the heart of the seas,

And the floods surrounded me;

dAll Your billows and Your waves passed over me.

4 eThen I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;

Yet I will look again ftoward Your holy temple.’

5 The gwaters surrounded me, even to my soul;

The deep closed around me;

Weeds were wrapped around my head.

6 I went down to the 1moorings of the mountains;

The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;

Yet You have brought up my hlife from the pit,

O Lord, my God.

7 “When my soul fainted within me,

I remembered the Lord;

iAnd my prayer went up to You,

Into Your holy temple.

8 “Those who regard jworthless idols

Forsake their own 2Mercy.

9 But I will ksacrifice to You

With the voice of thanksgiving;

I will pay what I have lvowed.

mSalvation is of the nLord.”

10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Jonah Preaches at Nineveh

3 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, 1a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then ahe cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

The People of Nineveh Believe

5 So the bpeople of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth cand sat in ashes. 7 dAnd he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his 2nobles, saying,

Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, elet every one turn from his evil way and from fthe violence that is in his hands. 9 gWho can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

10 hThen God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.