Book of Jonah

Chapter 1

1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amathi, saying,

2 "Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim in it, for the cry of its wickedness has come up to me."

3 And Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the face of the Lord, and he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish, and he paid his fare and went aboard it to sail with them to Tarshish, away from the face of the Lord.

4 And the Lord raised up a wind upon the sea, and there was a great swell in the sea, and the ship was in danger of being broken apart.

5 And the sailors were afraid and cried out each to his god, and they made a jettison of the goods that were in the ship into the sea, to be lightened of them; but Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship and was sleeping and snoring.

6 And the helmsman came to him and said to him, "Why are you snoring? Get up and call upon your god, so that God may save us and we not perish."

7 And each said to his neighbor, "Come, let us cast lots and find out on whose account this evil is upon us." And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

8 And they said to him, "Tell us on whose account this evil is upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from, and from what country and from what people are you?"

9 And he said to them, "I am a servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."

10 And the men feared a great fear and said to him, "What is this you have done?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he had told them.

11 And they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may abate from us?" For the sea was rising and stirring up an even greater swell.

12 And Jonah said to them, "Take me up and throw me into the sea, and the sea will abate from you; for I know that this great swell is upon you because of me."

13 And the men strove hard to return to land, but they could not, because the sea was rising and swelling still more against them.

14 And they cried out to the Lord and said, "By no means, Lord, let us not perish on account of the life of this man, and do not lay righteous blood upon us; for you, Lord, have done just as you willed."

15 And they took Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

16 And the men feared the Lord with a great fear, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

Chapter 2

1 And the Lord commanded a great sea-monster to swallow Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the sea-monster three days and three nights.

2 And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the sea-monster,

3 and said: I cried out in my affliction to the Lord my God, and he heard me; from the belly of Hades you heard the cry of my voice.

4 You cast me away into the depths of the heart of the sea, and rivers encircled me; all your surges and your waves passed over me.

5 And I said: I have been thrust away from your eyes; shall I ever again look upon your holy temple?

6 Water poured around me up to my soul; the deepest abyss encircled me; my head sank into the clefts of the mountains.

7 I went down into the earth, whose bars are everlasting holds; yet let my life rise up from corruption, O Lord my God.

8 When my soul was failing from me, I remembered the Lord, and may my prayer come to you, to your holy temple.

9 Those who keep to vain and false things have forsaken their own mercy.

10 But I, with a voice of praise and thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you; whatever I have vowed I will pay to you, my salvation belongs to the Lord.

11 And the sea-monster was commanded, and it cast Jonah out onto the dry land.

Chapter 3

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

2 "Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim in it according to the former proclamation which I spoke to you."

3 And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, just as the Lord had spoken. Now Nineveh was a great city to God, of about a three days' journey.

4 And Jonah began to enter into the city, going about one day's journey, and he proclaimed and said, "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

5 And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

6 And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose up from his throne and took off his robe from himself and put on sackcloth and sat upon ashes.

7 And it was proclaimed and declared in Nineveh by the king and by his nobles, saying, "Let neither men nor beasts nor oxen nor sheep taste anything, nor let them graze, nor let them drink water."

8 And the men and the beasts put on sackcloth, and they cried out earnestly to God; and each turned away from his evil way and from the wrongdoing that was in their hands, saying,

9 "Who knows whether God will relent and turn from the wrath of his anger, and we shall not perish?"

10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways, and God relented concerning the evil which he had spoken of doing to them, and he did not do it.

Chapter 4

1 And Jonah was grieved with great grief, and he was confounded.

2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord, were these not my words while I was still in my own land? Therefore I hastened to flee to Tharsis, because I knew that you are merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and relenting concerning evils.

3 And now, Master, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

4 And the Lord said to Jonah, "Are you exceedingly grieved?"

5 And Jonah went out from the city and sat down opposite the city; and he made himself a booth there and sat under it in the shade, until he should see what would become of the city.

6 And the Lord God appointed a gourd, and it grew up over Jonah's head to be a shade above his head, to shade him from his miseries; and Jonah rejoiced over the gourd with great joy.

7 And God appointed a worm early in the morning on the next day, and it struck the gourd, and it withered.

8 And it came to pass, as soon as the sun rose, that God appointed a scorching burning wind, and the sun beat upon Jonah's head; and he grew faint and despaired of his life, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

9 And God said to Jonah, "Are you exceedingly grieved over the gourd?" And he said, "I am exceedingly grieved, even unto death."

10 And the Lord said, "You had pity on the gourd, for which you did not suffer hardship, nor did you nurture it, which came into being in a night and in a night perished.

11 And shall I not spare Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and many cattle?"