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.

Jonah’s Anger and God’s Kindness

4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I afled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a bgracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. 3 cTherefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for dit is better for me to die than to live!”

4 Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5 So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. 6 And the Lord God prepared a 1plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah 2was very grateful for the plant. 7 But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. 8 And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, e“It is better for me to die than to live.”

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

And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!”

10 But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which 3came up in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not pity Nineveh, fthat great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons gwho cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”

Micah

1 The word of the Lord that came to aMicah of Moresheth in the days of bJotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.