Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried out to his god, and they hurled the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the stern of the ship, had lain down, and fallen sound asleep.

So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.”

Jonah’s Prayer

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish,

I descended to the base of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, Lord my God.

Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.

But every person and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and people are to call on God vehemently, and they are to turn, each one from his evil way, and from the violence which is in their hands.

Who knows, God may turn and relent, and turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”

When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, then God relented of the disaster which He had declared He would bring on them. So He did not do it.

Then he prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster.

So the Lord God designated a plant, and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to relieve him of his discomfort. And Jonah was overjoyed about the plant.

But God designated a worm when dawn came the next day, and it attacked the plant and it withered.

And when the sun came up God designated a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint, and he begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life!”

But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to the point of death!”