Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Contrite Sinner’s Prayer for Pardon.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when ^[a]Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Jonah’s Displeasure Rebuked

4 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became ^(A)angry. ² He ^(B)prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this ^[a]what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore ^[b]in order to forestall this I ^(C)fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a ^(D)gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. ³ Therefore now, O Lord, please ^(E)take my ^[c]life from me, for death is ^(F)better to me than life.” ⁴ The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

⁵ Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of ^[d]it. There he made a shelter for himself and ^(G)sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. ⁶ So the Lord God appointed a ^[e]plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was ^[f]extremely happy about the ^[g]plant. ⁷ But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it ^(H)withered. ⁸ When the sun came up God appointed a scorching ^(I)east wind, and the ^(J)sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “^(K)Death is better to me than life.”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” ¹⁰ Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which ^[h]came up overnight and perished ^[i]overnight. ¹¹ Should I not ^(L)have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not ^(M)know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many ^(N)animals?”

⁸ First, ^(A)I thank my God through Jesus Christ ^[a]for you all, because ^(B)your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. ⁹ For ^(C)God, whom I ^(D)serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly ^(E)I make mention of you, ¹⁰ always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by ^(F)the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For ^(G)I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be ^[b]established; ¹² that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. ^13 (H)I do not want you to be unaware, ^(I)brethren, that often I ^(J)have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some ^(K)fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. ^14 (L)I am ^[c]under obligation both to Greeks and to ^(M)barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So, for my part, I am eager to ^(N)preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶ For I am not ^(O)ashamed of the gospel, for ^(P)it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the ^(Q)Jew first and also to ^(R)the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it ^(S)the righteousness of God is revealed ^[d]from faith to faith; as it is written, “^[e](T)But the righteous man shall live by faith.”