Jonah and Nineveh

Jonah 3:1–4:11 WEB

^3:1The LORD’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying, ²“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.” ³So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. ⁴Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!” ⁵The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. ⁶The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; ⁸but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. ⁹Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?” ¹⁰God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.

^4:1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. ²He prayed to the LORD, and said, “Please, LORD, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm. ³Therefore now, LORD, take, I beg you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴The LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” ⁵Then Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city. ⁶The LORD God prepared a vine and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine. ⁷But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine so that it withered. ⁸When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he was faint and requested for himself that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” ⁹God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.” ¹⁰The LORD said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals?”