Jonah 3–4

And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, ²Arise, go unto ^aNineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. ³So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now ^aNineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. ⁴And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and ^bNineveh shall be overthrown. ⁵So ^cthe people of Nineveh believed God, and ^dproclaimed a fast, and ^eput on sackcloth, ^ffrom the greatest of them even to the least of them. ⁶For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and ^ghe arose from his throne, and he laid ^hhis robe from him, and ^eicovered him with sackcloth, and ^ijsat in ashes. ⁷And he ^kcaused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by ^lthe decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor ^mbeast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: ⁸But let man and beast ^ebe covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, ⁿlet them turn every one from his evil way, and from ^othe violence that is in their hands. ^9pqWho can tell if God will turn ^qand repent, and ^rturn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? ¹⁰And God saw their works, that ^nsthey turned from their evil way; and ^stGod repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

IV.But ^ait displeased Jonah exceedingly, and ^bhe was very angry. ²And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore ^cI fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art ^da gracious God, and ^demerciful, ^dslow to anger, and of great kindness, ^dand repentest thee of the evil. ³Therefore now, ^fO Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for ^git is better for me to die than to live. ⁴Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? ⁵So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him ^ha booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. ⁶And the ⁱLord God ^jprepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his ^agrief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. ⁷But God ^jprepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered. ⁸And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God ^jprepared a vehement ^keast wind; and the sun ^lbeat upon the head of Jonah, that ^mhe fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, ^gIt is better for me to die than to live. ⁹And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, ⁿeven unto death. ¹⁰Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: ¹¹and should not I spare ^oNineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons ^pthat cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; ^qand also much cattle?