Jonah 3 & 4 (EHV)

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up. Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”

3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh just as the word of the Lord had commanded. Now Nineveh was a great city to God. It required a three-day walk. [1] 4 Jonah walked through the city for a day, and he called out, “Forty more days and Nineveh is going to be overthrown!”

5 The men of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. 6 When 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. 7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh.

By the decree of the king and his leading officials:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything. Do not let them eat food or drink water. 8 Instead, let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call fervently to God. Let them turn from their evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent. He may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.

10 When God saw their actions, that they had turned from their evil way, God relented from the disaster which he said he would bring on them, and he did not carry it out.

1 But to Jonah all this seemed very bad, and he became very angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Lord, wasn’t this exactly what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I previously fled to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and you relent from sending disaster. 3 So now, Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5 Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city. He made a shelter for himself there and sat in the shade under it, waiting to see what would happen in the city.

6 Then the Lord God provided a plant and made it grow up over Jonah to provide shade over his head, to relieve him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, and it attacked the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, so he said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

Jonah said, “I do have a right to be angry—angry enough to die!”

10 So the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant. You did not work for it or make it grow. It grew up in one night and perished after one night. 11 So should I not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left—and also many animals?”

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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