meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Prophets/Jonah/English/Modernized Tanakh - Based on JPS 1917, Edited by Adam Cohn.txt"}
text: Jonah
  יונה
  Modernized Tanakh - Based on JPS 1917, Edited by Adam Cohn
  
  
  Jonah
  
  
  
  
  
  Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying:
  ’Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim against it; for their wickedness has risen up before Me.’
  But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, from the presence of the LORD.
  But the LORD hurled a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty storm in the sea, so that the ship was likely to break.
  And the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god; and they threw away the goods that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
  So the shipmaster came to him, and said to him: ‘What do mean by sleeping? Get up, call on your God, maybe that God will think about us, and we won't be lost.’
  And they said to each other: ‘Come, and let us draw lots, that we may know who brings this evil on us.’ So they drew lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
  Then they said to him: ‘Please, tell us, who it is that brings this evil on us: what is your occupation? And where do you come from? what is your country? and of what people are you?’
  And he said to them: ‘I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.’
  Then the men were extremely afraid, and said to him: ‘What is it that you have done?’ For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
  Then said they to him: ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm for us?’ for the sea grew more and more stormy.
  And he said to them: ‘Take me up, and throw me out into the sea; so the sea will be calm for you; because I know that this great storm is upon you because of me.’
  The men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not; because the sea grew more and more stormy against them.
  They cried to the LORD, and said: ‘We beg You, LORD, Please, do not let us not die for this man’s life, and do not put on us innocent blood; for You, LORD, have done as it pleased You.’
  So they took up Jonah, and threw him out into the sea; and the sea stopped raging.
  Then the men feared the LORD greatly; and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD, and made vows.
  
  
  
  And the LORD prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
  Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly.
  And he said: I called out of my affliction To the LORD, and He answered me; Out of the belly of the grave I cried, And You heard my voice.
  For You cast me into the depth, In the heart of the seas, And the flood was around me; All Your waves and Your billows Passed over me.
  And I said: ‘I have been cast out From before Your eyes’; Yet I will look again Toward Your holy temple.
  The waters circled me about, even to the soul; The deep was around me; The weeds were wrapped around my head.
  I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The earth with her bars closed over me for ever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, LORD my God.
  When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer came in to You, Into Your holy temple.
  Those who respect lying vanities Abandon mercy.
  But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; What I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is of the LORD.
  And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.
  
  
  
  And the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying:
  ’Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and make the proclamation that I bid you.’
  So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was a very great city, of three days’ journey.
  And Jonah entered into the city one day’s journey, and he proclaimed, and said: ‘In forty days,  Nineveh will be overthrown.’
  And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
  And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne, and put his robe away, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
  And he had it proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying: ‘Let no man or animal, herd or flock, taste any thing; do not let them feed, or drink water;
  but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily to God; let every one turn from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
  Who knows if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we do not die?’
  And God saw their work, because they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, which He said He would do to them; and He did not do it.
  
  
  
  But it really displeased Jonah, and he was angry.
  And he prayed to the LORD, and said: ‘Please LORD, isn't this this what I said, when I was in my own country? So, I quickly fled to Tarshish; because I knew that You are a gracious God, and compassionate, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy, and You repent of evil.
  So now, LORD, I beg you, take my life from me; because it is better for me to die than to live.’
  And the LORD said: ‘Are you that angry?’
  Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and made a booth there, and sat under it in the shadow, until he saw what would happen to the city.
  And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, so that that it would be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his evil. So Jonah was very happy because of the gourd.
  But God prepared a worm when the morning came the next day, and it killed the gourd, so that it withered.
  And it happened, when the sun rose, that God prepared a strong east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, until he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said: ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’
  And God said to Jonah: ‘Are you so angry for the gourd?’ And he said: ‘I am greatly angry, even to death.’
  And the LORD said: ‘You have had pity on the gourd, you have not labored for it, and did not make it grow, it came up in a night, and died in a night;
  and shouldn't I have pity on Nineveh, the great city, where there are more than one hundred twenty thousand people that cannot distinguish between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?’