Jonah 3–4

Jonah’s Preaching

3Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ^v2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh ^wand preach ^xthe message that I tell you.” ³So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command.

Now Nineveh was an extremely large city, ^yza three-day walk. ^a4Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, ^b“In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!” ⁵The men of Nineveh believed in God. ^cThey proclaimed a fast ^dand dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.

⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, ^eand sat in ashes. ⁷Then he issued a decree ^fin Nineveh:

By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. ⁸Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. ^gEach must turn from his evil ways ^hand from the violence ⁱhe is doing. ^j9Who knows? ^kGod may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish. ^l

¹⁰Then God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways ^m—so God relented from the disaster ⁿHe had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it.

Jonah’s Anger

4But Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. ^o2He prayed to the Lord: ^p“Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. ^qI knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, ^rslow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster. ^s3And now, Lord, please take my life from me, ^tfor it is better for me to die than to live.” ^u

⁴The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. ^vHe made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. ⁶Then the Lord God appointed a plant, ^wand it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort. ^xJonah was greatly pleased with the plant. ⁷When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered. ^y

⁸As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. ^zThe sun beat down so much on Jonah’s head ^athat he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.” ^b

⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“Yes,” he replied. “It is right. I’m angry enough to die!”

¹⁰So the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, ^cwhich has more than 120,000 people ^dwho cannot distinguish between their right and their left, ^eas well as many animals?” ^f