Jonah 3–4

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

3A message came to Jonah from the Lord a second time. He said, ²“Go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce to its people the message I give you.”

³Jonah obeyed the Lord. He went to Nineveh. It was a very important city. In fact, it took about three days to see all of it. ⁴On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He announced, “In 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed.”

⁵The people of Nineveh believed God’s warning. They decided not to eat any food for a while. All of them put on black clothes. That’s what everyone from the least important of them to the most important did.

⁶The news reached the king of Nineveh. He got up from his throne. He took his royal robes off and dressed himself in black clothes. He sat down in the dust. ⁷Then he sent out a message to the people of Nineveh. He said,

“I and my nobles give this order.

“Don’t let any person or animal taste anything. That includes your herds and flocks. People and animals must not eat or drink anything. ⁸Let people and animals alike be covered with black cloth. All of you must call out to God with all your hearts. Stop doing what is evil. Don’t harm others. ⁹Who knows? God might take pity on us. He might turn away from his burning anger. Then we won’t die.”

¹⁰God saw what they did. They stopped doing what was evil. So he took pity on them. He didn’t destroy them as he had said he would.

The Lord Shows Concern for Nineveh

4But Jonah was very upset. He became angry. ²He prayed to the Lord and said, “Lord, isn’t this exactly what I thought would happen when I was still at home? That’s why I was so quick to run away to Tarshish. I knew that you are gracious. You are tender and kind. You are slow to get angry. You are full of love. You are a God who takes pity on people. You don’t want to destroy them. ³Lord, take away my life. I’d rather die than live.”

⁴But the Lord replied, “Do you have any right to be angry?”

⁵Jonah left the city. He sat down at a place east of it. There he put some branches over his head. He sat in their shade. He waited to see what would happen to the city.

⁶Then the Lord God sent a vine and made it grow up over Jonah. It gave him more shade for his head. It made him more comfortable. Jonah was very happy he had the vine. ⁷But before sunrise the next day, God sent a worm. It chewed the vine so much that it dried up.

⁸When the sun rose, God sent a burning east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head. It made him very weak. He wanted to die. So he said, “I’d rather die than live.”

⁹But God said to Jonah, “Do you have any right to be angry about what happened to the vine?”

“I do,” he said. “In fact, I’m angry enough to die.”

¹⁰But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this vine. But you did not take care of it. You did not make it grow. It grew up in one night and died the next. ¹¹Nineveh has more than 120,000 people. They can’t tell right from wrong. Nineveh also has a lot of cattle. So shouldn’t I show concern for that great city?”