Noyes - Jonah

Chapter 1

1:1  Now the word of Jehovah came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying,

1:2  Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

1:3  But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish, and paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah.

1:4  But Jehovah sent forth a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken in pieces.

1:5  Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god. And they cast forth the things that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah had gone down to the lower part of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.

1:6  And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God! Perhaps God will think upon us, that we perish not.

1:7  And they said one to another, come, and let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil is upon us! And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

1:8  Then said they to him, Tell us, we pray thee, on whose account this evil is upon us. What is thy business? And whence comest thou? What is thy country? And of what people art thou?

1:9  And he said to them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

1:10  Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said to him, Wherefore hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of Jehovah, because he had told them.

1:11  Then said they to him, What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm to us? For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.

1:12  And he said to them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; and the sea shall be calm to you. For I know that because of me this great tempest is upon you.

1:13  Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship to the land; but they could not; for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

1:14  And they cried to Jehovah, and said, We beseech thee, O Jehovah, we beseech thee, let us not perish for the life of this man, and lay not upon us innocent blood! For thou, O Jehovah, hast done as it pleased thee.

1:15  And they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging.

1:16  Then the men feared Jehovah exceedingly, and offered sacrifice to Jehovah, and made vows.

1:17  Now Jehovah had appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Chapter 2

2:1  Then Jonah prayed to Jehovah from the belly of the fish,

2:2  and said:— I cried by reason of my distress to Jehovah, And he heard me: Out of the depth of the under-world I cried, And thou didst hear my voice.

2:3  Thou didst cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea, And the flood compassed me about; All thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

2:4  And I said, "I am cast out from before thine eyes; Yet I will look again to thy holy temple!"

2:5  The waters compassed me about, even to the life, The deep enclosed me round about; Sea-weeds were bound around my head;

2:6  I sank down to the foundations of the mountains; The bars of the earth were about me forever; Yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit, O Jehovah, my God!

2:7  When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Jehovah, And my prayer came to thee, To thy holy temple.

2:8  They that honor lying vanities forsake their mercy;

2:9  But I will sacrifice to thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed; Salvation is from Jehovah.

2:10  And Jehovah commanded the fish, and it cast out Jonah upon the dry land.

Chapter 3

3:1  And the word of Jehovah came to Jonah the second time, saying,

3:2  Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to her the words which I shall speak to thee.

3:3  And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. Now Nineveh was through God a great city, three days’ journey in extent.

3:4  And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

3:5  And the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

3:6  For when the matter came to the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, and put off his mantle and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

3:7  And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water.

3:8  But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God. Yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

3:9  Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

3:10  And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way: and God repented of the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.

Chapter 4

4:1  But this displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

4:2  And he prayed to Jehovah and said, Ah! Jehovah, was not this what I said, when I was yet in my own country? Therefore I made haste to flee to Tarshish. For I knew that thou art a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and that thou repentest of a threatened evil.

4:3  And now, O Jehovah, take, I pray thee, my life from me! for it is better for me to die than to live.

4:4  And Jehovah said, Is it right that thou shouldst be angry?

4:5  Now Jonah had gone out of the city, and had sat on the east side of the city, and had made himself a booth there, and had sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.

4:6  And God, Jehovah, appointed a gourd; and it grew up over Jonah to be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his distress. And Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd.

4:7  But God appointed a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd so that it withered.

4:8  And when the sun arose, God appointed a sultry east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and he was faint, and he asked for himself death, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

4:9  And God said to Jonah, Is it right that thou shouldst be angry for the gourd? And he said, It is right that I should be angry even to death.

4:10  And Jehovah said, Thou hast had pity on the gourd for which thou hast not labored, and which thou madest not to grow, which grew up in a night and perished in a night;

4:11  and should not I spare Nineveh, the great city, wherein are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many cattle?