Jonah’s Prayer

1From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God, 2saying:

“In my distress I called to the LORD,

and He answered me.

From the belly of Sheol I called for help,

and You heard my voice.

3For You cast me into the deep,

into the heart of the seas,

and the current swirled about me;

all Your breakers and waves swept over me.

4At this, I said,

‘I have been banished from Your sight;

yet I will look once more

toward Your holy temple.’

5The waters engulfed me

to take my life;

the watery depths closed around me;

the seaweed wrapped around my head.

6To the roots of the mountains I descended;

the earth beneath me barred me in forever!

But You raised my life from the pit,

O LORD my God!

7As my life was fading away,

I remembered the LORD.

My prayer went up to You,

to Your holy temple.

8Those who cling to worthless idols

forsake His loving devotion.a

9But I, with the voice of thanksgiving,

will sacrifice to You.

I will fulfill what I have vowed.

Salvation is from the LORD!”

10And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

8 a Forms of the Hebrew chesed  are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion ; the range of meaning includes love , goodness , kindness , faithfulness , and mercy , as well as loyalty to a covenant .

The Ninevites Repent
(Matthew 12:38–42; Luke 11:29–32)

1Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”

3This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,a requiring a three-day journey.b 4On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”

5And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.

6When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink. 8Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands. 9Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”

10When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.

Jonah’s Anger at the LORD’s Compassion

1Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry.a 2So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster. 3And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

5Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6So the LORD God appointed a vine,b and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.

7When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

8As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

9Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?”

“I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

10But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night. 11So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”