Jonah 1:17-3:10

Complete Jewish Bible

2 ^(1:17)Adonai prepared a huge fish to swallow Yonah; and Yonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. ²⁽¹⁾From the belly of the fish Yonah prayed to Adonai his God; ³⁽²⁾he said,

“Out of my distress I called to Adonai,
and he answered me;
from the belly of Sh’ol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
⁴⁽³⁾For you threw me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas;
and the flood enveloped me;
all your surging waves passed over me.
⁵⁽⁴⁾I thought, ‘I have been banished from your sight.’
But I will again look at your holy temple.
⁶⁽⁵⁾The water surrounded me, threatened my life;
the deep closed over me, seaweed twined around my head.
⁷⁽⁶⁾I was going down to the bottoms of the mountains,
to a land whose bars would close me in forever;
but you brought me up alive from the pit,
Adonai, my God!
⁸⁽⁷⁾As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered Adonai;
and my prayer came in to you,
into your holy temple.

⁹⁽⁸⁾“Those who worship vain idols
give up their source of mercy;
¹⁰⁽⁹⁾but I, speaking my thanks aloud,
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed, I will pay.
Salvation comes from Adonai!”

¹¹⁽¹⁰⁾Then Adonai spoke to the fish, and it vomited Yonah out onto dry land.

3 The word of Adonai came to Yonah a second time: ²“Set out for the great city of Ninveh, and proclaim to it the message I will give you.” ³So Yonah set out and went to Ninveh, as Adonai had said. Now Ninveh was such a large city that it took three days just to cross it. ⁴Yonah began his entry into the city and had finished only his first day of proclaiming, ‘In forty days Ninveh will be overthrown,’ ⁵when the people of Ninveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. ⁶When the news reached the king of Ninveh, he got up from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. ⁷He then had this proclamation made throughout Ninveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles, no person or animal, herd or flock, is to put anything in his mouth; they are neither to eat nor drink water. ⁸They must be covered with sackcloth, both people and animals; and they are to cry out to God with all their might — let each of them turn from his evil way and from the violence they practice. ⁹Who knows? Maybe God will change his mind, relent and turn from his fierce anger; and then we won’t perish.”