meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Prophets/Jonah/English/The Koren Jerusalem Bible.txt"}
text: Jonah
  יונה
  The Koren Jerusalem Bible
  
  
  Jonah
  
  
  
  
  
  Now the word of the Lord came to Yona the son of Amittay, saying,
  Arise, go to Nineve, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
  But Yona rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Yafo; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare of it, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the  					Lord.
  But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship seemed likely to be wrecked.
  Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god, and threw out the articles that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. But Yona was gone down into the recesses of the ship; and he lay down, and was fast asleep.
  So 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.
  And they said everyone to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Yona.
  Then they said to him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thy occupation? and where dost thou come from? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
  And he said to them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.
  Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and they said to him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
  Then they said to him, What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm for us? for the sea grew more and more tempestuous.
  And he said to them, Take me up, and cast me into the sea; so shall the sea be calm for you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
  Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land; but they could not: for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
  So they cried to the Lord, and said, We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O  					Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee.
  So they took up Yona, and cast him into the sea: and the sea ceased from its raging.
  Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows.
  
  
  
  Now the Lord had appointed a great fish to swallow up Yona. And Yona was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
  Then Yona prayed to the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly,
  and said, I cried to the Lord out of my distress, and he heard me; out of the belly of She᾽ol I cried and Thou didst hear my voice.
  For Thou didst cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me.
  Then I said, I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again towards Thy holy temple.
  The waters compassed me about, to the point of death: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
  I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars closed on me forever: yet hast Thou brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
  When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in to Thee, into Thy holy temple.
  They that guard lying vanities forsake their loyalty.
  But I will sacrifice to Thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
  And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Yona upon the dry land.
  
  
  
  And the word of the Lord came to Yona the second time, saying,
  Arise, go to Nineve, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I bid thee.
  So Yona arose, and went to Nineve, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineve was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey in extent.
  And Yona began to enter the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Another forty days, and Nineve shall be overthrown.
  So the people of Nineve believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
  For word came to the king of Nineve, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
  And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineve by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
  but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God: and let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
  Who can tell? God may turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we perish not.
  And God saw their deeds, in 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 not do it.
  
  
  
  But it displeased Yona exceedingly, and he was vexed.
  And he prayed to the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was still in my own country? Therefore I fled beforehand to Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious 
  					God, and merciful, slow to anger, and great in love, and repentest of the evil.
  Therefore now, O Lord, take my life from me, I pray thee; for it is better for me to die than to live.
  Then the Lord said, Art thou so greatly vexed?
  So Yona went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would come to pass in the city.
  And the Lord God appointed a castor oil plant, and made it to come up over Yona, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his distress. And Yona was exceeding glad of the plant.
  But God appointed a worm when the dawn came up the next day, and it attacked the plant, so that it withered.
  And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat down upon the head of Yona, so that he fainted; so he asked that he might die, and he said, It is better for me to die than to live.
  And God said to Yona, Art thou so greatly vexed on account of the plant? And he said, I am greatly vexed to death.
  Then the Lord said, Thou art concerned about the castor oil plant, for which thou hast not laboured, and which thou didst not rear, which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
  and should I not be concerned for Nineve, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?