Jonah 3:1–4:11

Nineveh Repents

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,

2 “Arise, go to aNineveh the great city and bproclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was 1an aexceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.

4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he acried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a afast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, acovered himself with sackcloth and sat on the 1ashes.

7 He issued a aproclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water.

8 “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let 1men acall on God earnestly that each may bturn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in 2his hands.

9 “aWho knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”

10 When God saw their deeds, that they aturned from their wicked way, then bGod relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would 1bring upon them. And He did not do it.

Chapter 4

Jonah’s Displeasure Rebuked

1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became aangry.

2 He aprayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this 1what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore 2in order to forestall this I bfled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a cgracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.

3 “Therefore now, O Lord, please atake my 1life from me, for death is bbetter to me than life.”

4 The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of 1it. There he made a shelter for himself and asat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.

6 So the Lord God appointed a 1plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was 2extremely happy about the 1plant.

7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it awithered.

8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching aeast wind, and the bsun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “cDeath is better to me than life.”

9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”

10 Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which 1came up overnight and perished 2overnight.

11 “Should I not ahave compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not bknow the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many canimals?”