JONAH FLEES FROM THE VOICE OF THE LORD. HE IS THROWN INTO THE SEA BY THE SAILORS AND SWALLOWED BY A GREAT FISH. THE FISH CASTS HIM OUT ON THE DRY LAND. HE GOES TO NINEVEH AND PREACHES TO THE PEOPLE.
NINEVEH was one of the mightiest cities of the old times. In it were temples, palaces, and houses for a great multitude of people; and beautiful gardens, also, and green fields, where cattle were fed. Around the city were walls a hundred feet high. These walls were so thick that on their top, three chariots, drawn by horses, might be driven side by side. And towers were built above the walls, all around the city. There were fifteen hundred towers, each one being two hundred feet high. On the top of the walls, and in the towers, the Assyrian soldiers stood, to shoot arrows and darts at their enemies when they came to fight against Nineveh. But Nineveh was a very wicked city.
And God spoke to the prophet Jonah, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and tell the people of the punishment that is coming upon them for their sins. But Jonah did not want to go, and he fled to Joppa, a city by the sea. There he found a ship that was going to a far country, and Jonah paid his fare and went into it, that he might flee to some place where he would not hear the Lord speaking to him.
But when he had sailed out on the sea, the Lord sent a strong wind and there was a great storm, and the ship was in danger of being broken to pieces. Then the sailors were afraid, and they prayed, each one to his idol, for help. They threw out, also, some of the loading of the ship, to lighten it and keep it from sinking. But Jonah did not know of the danger they were in, for he had gone down to the lower part of the ship, and lay there fast asleep. And the captain came to him and awaked him, saying, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Rise up and pray to thy God; perhaps he may pity us, and save us from perishing.
Then the men talked with one another, and said, Because some one in the ship has done wickedly, this storm is sent; and they said, Come, let us cast lots that we may find out for whose sake it is brought upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, Tell us, what wicked thing hast thou done? where is thy country? and to what people dost thou belong? Jonah answered, I am an Hebrew, and am fleeing from the Lord who made the sea and the dry land, that I may not hear his voice speaking to me. And the men were greatly afraid, and said, Why hast thou done this thing? And they asked Jonah, What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be still for us? For the ship was tossed by the tempest. Jonah answered them, Take me up and cast me into the sea, so shall the sea be still for you, because I know that it is for my sake this danger has come upon you.
Yet the men did not want to throw him into the sea, and they rowed hard to bring the ship to land, but could not. Then they prayed to the Lord, whom Jonah had told them of, and they cried out to him, saying, O Lord, we beseech thee, punish us not for casting this man into the sea, as if we were putting to death one who had done us no harm, for thou, O Lord, hast sent the storm, on his account. Then they took up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the sea grew still and calm. And the men wondered; and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and promised, after that, to serve him.
Now the Lord had sent a great fish to the side of the ship, to swallow up Jonah as soon as he should be cast into the sea. And Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights. And he prayed to the Lord while he was in the fish; he cried to God in his trouble, and confessed his sin, and God heard him, and commanded the fish to cast him out on the dry land.
Then the Lord spoke to him again, the second time, and said, Rise up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to the people the words that I shall tell thee. So Jonah arose and went. And he came into the middle of the city, as far as he could walk in one day, and there he cried out with a loud voice, and said, After forty days Nineveh shall be destroyed, for the sins of the people.
When the king of Nineveh, and the people, heard this, they believed that God had sent Jonah, and that the words he spoke would come true. And the king rose up from his throne, and took off his royal robes and put on sackcloth. And the king and his princes sent word through the city that all the people should fast. Let not man or beast, they said, eat any food or drink any water, but let them be covered with sackcloth, and let every one pray with all his heart and cease doing wickedly; for who can tell but the Lord may forgive us and take his great anger from us, so that we perish not? And when God saw how they prayed to him, and ceased doing evil, he took away his anger from them and did not destroy the city.
But Jonah was displeased at this. He wanted Nineveh to be destroyed, because the people who lived there were enemies to the children of Israel. Jonah feared also being laughed at, and called a false prophet. Therefore he was angry and spoke wickedly to the Lord, and said, I knew that thou wouldst not destroy the city, and therefore I fled the first time, that I might not hear thy voice speaking to me. And now, I beseech thee, O Lord, put me to death, for I would rather die than live. Yet the Lord spoke kindly to Jonah, and asked if it was well for him to be angry.
And Jonah would not stay in Nineveh, but he went to a place outside of the city, and made a booth there, and sat down under it, by himself, to see whether the city would be destroyed or not. And the Lord caused a gourd, or vine, to grow up in one night over his booth; its thick leaves shaded his head, and Jonah was very glad for the gourd. But soon God sent a worm that gnawed at its root, and the next day it died. In the morning God sent a hot wind on Jonah, and the sun also beat upon his head, and as the gourd no longer shaded him, he was made sick by the heat and fainted. And he was angry again and wished he might die, and said, It is better for me to die than live.
And God said to him, Doest thou well to be angry? Jonah answered, Yes, I do well to be angry. Then God said, Thou art angry because I have destroyed the gourd, which was only a vine that grew up in a night and died in a night; and now wouldst thou have me to destroy Nineveh, that great city, where there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand little children, so young that they cannot tell their right hands from their left? So God taught Jonah how selfish and wicked he was, in wishing that Nineveh should be destroyed, because the people were not friends to the children of Israel, and because he feared being laughed at and called a false prophet.