Jonah Flees the Presence of the Lord

1 Now the word of the Lord came to ^(A)Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to ^(B)Nineveh, that ^(C)great city, and call out against it, ^(D)for their evil^[a] has come up before me.” ³ But Jonah ^(E)rose to flee to ^(F)Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to ^(G)Joppa and found a ship going to ^(H)Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to ^(I)Tarshish, ^(J)away from the presence of the Lord.

¹⁰ And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ² “Arise, go to ^(A)Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” ³ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now ^(B)Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,^[a] three days' journey in breadth.^{[b] 4} Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” ^5 (C)And the people of Nineveh believed God. ^(D)They called for a fast and ^(E)put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

¹⁰ When God saw what they did, ^(A)how they turned from their evil way, ^(B)God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Jonah's Anger and the Lord's Compassion

4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,^[a] and ^(A)he was angry. ² And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? ^(B)That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a ^(C)gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ^(D)relenting from disaster. ^3 (E)Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, ^(F)for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁵ Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and ^(A)made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. ⁶ Now the Lord God appointed a plant^[a] and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.^[b] So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

⁸ When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching ^(A)east wind, ^(B)and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he ^(C)was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, ^(D)“It is better for me to die than to live.” ⁹ But God said to Jonah, ^(E)“Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” ¹⁰ And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should not I pity ^(F)Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much ^(G)cattle?”