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Jonah 1:1-4:11

JONAH. JONAH disobeys the LORD. (Jon.1.1-17)

1¹The word of Yahweh was addressed to Jonah son of Amittai: ²'Up!' he said, 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to them that their wickedness has forced itself upon me.' ³Jonah set about running away from Yahweh, and going to Tarshish. He went down to Jaffa and found a ship bound for Tarshish; he paid his fare and boarded it, to go with them to Tarshish, to get away from Yahweh. ⁴But Yahweh threw a hurricane at the sea, and there was such a great storm at sea that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵The sailors took fright, and each of them called on his own god, and to lighten the ship they threw the cargo overboard. Jonah, however, had gone below, had lain down in the hold and was fast asleep, ⁶when the boatswain went up to him and said, 'What do you mean by sleeping? Get up! Call on your god! Perhaps he will spare us a thought and not leave us to die.' ⁷Then they said to each other, 'Come on, let us draw lots to find out who is to blame for bringing us this bad luck.' So they cast lots, and the lot pointed to Jonah. ⁸Then they said to him, 'Tell us, what is your business? Where do you come from? What is your country? What is your nationality?' ⁹He replied, 'I am a Hebrew, and I worship Yahweh, God of Heaven, who made both sea and dry land.' ¹⁰The sailors were seized with terror at this and said, 'Why ever did you do this?' since they knew that he was trying to escape from Yahweh, because he had told them so. ¹¹They then said, 'What are we to do with you, to make the sea calm down for us?' For the sea was growing rougher and rougher. ¹²He replied, 'Take me and throw me into the sea, and then it will calm down for you. I know it is my fault that this great storm has struck you.' ¹³The sailors rowed hard in an effort to reach the shore, but in vain, since the sea was growing rougher and rougher. ¹⁴So at last they called on Yahweh and said, 'O, Yahweh, do not let us perish for the sake of this man's life, and do not hold us responsible for causing an innocent man's death; for you, Yahweh, have acted as you saw fit.' ¹⁵And taking hold of Jonah they threw him into the sea; and the sea stopped raging. ¹⁶At this, the men were seized with dread of Yahweh; they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows to him. ²⁰The exiles of this army, the sons of Israel, will have the Canaanites' land as far as Zarephthah, while the exiles from Jerusalem now in Sepharad will have the cities of the Negeb. ²¹Victorious, they will climb Mount Zion to rule over Mount Esau, and sovereignty will be Yahweh's!

Jonah's prayer. (Jon.2.1-10)

2¹Now Yahweh ordained that a great fish should swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. ²From the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God; he said:

³Out of my distress I cried to Yahweh
and he answered me,
from the belly of Sheol I cried out;
you heard my voice! ⁴For you threw me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the floods closed round me.
All your waves and billows passed over me;
⁵then I thought, 'I am banished from your sight;
how shall I ever see your holy Temple again?' ⁶The waters round me rose to my neck,
the deep was closing round me,
seaweed twining round my head.
⁷To the roots of the mountains,
I sank into the underworld,
and its bars closed round me for ever.

But you raised my life from the Pit,
Yahweh my God!
⁸When my soul was growing ever weaker,
Yahweh, I remembered you,
and my prayer reached you
in your holy Temple. ⁹Some abandon their faithful love
by worshipping false gods,
¹⁰but I shall sacrifice to you
with songs of praise.
The vow I have made I shall fulfil!
Salvation comes from Yahweh!

¹¹Yahweh spoke to the fish, which then vomited Jonah onto the dry land.

Jonah obeys the LORD. (Jon.3.1-10)

3¹The word of Yahweh was addressed to Jonah a second time. ²'Up!' he said, 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it as I shall tell you.' ³Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare; to cross it took three days. ⁴Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city and then proclaimed, 'Only forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.' ⁵And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. ⁶When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. ⁷He then had it proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles, as follows: 'No person or animal, herd or flock, may eat anything; they may not graze, they may not drink any water. ⁸All must put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his evil ways and violent behaviour. ⁹Who knows? Perhaps God will change his mind and relent and renounce his burning wrath, so that we shall not perish.' ¹⁰God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. And God relented about the disaster which he had threatened to bring on them, and did not bring it.

Jonah's anger & God's mercy. (Jon.4.1-11)

4¹This made Jonah very indignant; he fell into a rage. ²He prayed to Yahweh and said, 'Please, Yahweh, isn't this what I said would happen when I was still in my own country? That was why I first tried to flee to Tarshish, since I knew you were a tender, compassionate God, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, who relents about inflicting disaster. ³So now, Yahweh, please take my life, for I might as well be dead as go on living.' ⁴Yahweh replied, 'Are you right to be angry?' ⁵Jonah then left the city and sat down to the east of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city. ⁶Yahweh God then ordained that a castor-oil plant should grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head and soothe his ill-humour; Jonah was delighted with the castor-oil plant. ⁷But at dawn the next day, God ordained that a worm should attack the castor-oil plant—and it withered. ⁸Next, when the sun rose, God ordained that there should be a scorching east wind; the sun beat down so hard on Jonah's head that he was overcome and begged for death, saying, 'I might as well be dead as go on living.' ⁹God said to Jonah, 'Are you right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?' He replied, 'I have every right to be angry, mortally angry!' ¹⁰Yahweh replied, 'You are concerned for the castor-oil plant which has not cost you any effort and which you did not grow, which came up in a night and has perished in a night.