Jonah*
1 And the word of Jehovah began to occur to Joʹnah+ the son of A·mitʹtai, saying: 2 “Get up, go to Ninʹe·veh+ the great city, and proclaim against her that their badness has come up before me.”+
3 And Joʹnah proceeded to get up and run away to Tarʹshish+ from before Jehovah;+ and he finally came down to Jopʹpa*+ and found a ship going to Tarʹshish. So he paid its fare and went down into it, in order to go with them to Tarʹshish from before Jehovah.
4 And Jehovah himself hurled forth a great wind* at the sea,+ and there came to be a great tempest+ on the sea; and as for the ship, it was about to be wrecked. 5 And the mariners began to fear and to call for aid, each one to his god.*+ And they kept hurling out the articles that were in the ship to the sea, in order to lighten [it] of them.+ But Joʹnah himself had gone down to the innermost parts of the decked vessel, and he proceeded to lie down and go fast asleep.+ 6 At length the ship captain* came near to him and said to him: “What is the matter with you, sleeper? Get up, call out to your god!*+ Perhaps the [true] God* will show himself caring about us, and we shall not perish.”+
7 And they began to say to one another: “Come, and let us cast lots,+ that we may know on whose account we have this calamity.”+ And they kept casting lots, and finally the lot fell upon Joʹnah.+ 8 So they said to him: “Do tell us, please, on whose account it is that we are having this calamity?+ What is your work, and from where do you come? What is your country, and from which people are you?”
9 At that he said to them: “I am a Hebrew,+ and Jehovah the God of the heavens+ I am fearing,+ the One who made the sea and the dry land.”+
10 And the men* began to fear greatly, and they went on to say to him: “What is this that you have done?”+ For the men had come to know that it was from before Jehovah that he was running away, because he had told them. 11 Finally they said to him: “What should we do to you,+ in order that the sea may become still for us?” For the sea was continually growing more tempestuous. 12 So he said to them: “Lift me up and hurl me into the sea, and the sea will become still for YOU; because I am aware that it is on my account that this great tempest is upon YOU.”+ 13 But the men tried to work their way through, in order to bring [the ship] back to the dry land; yet they were unable, because the sea was continually growing more tempestuous against them.+
14 And they proceeded to call out to Jehovah and to say:+ “Ah, now, O Jehovah, may we, please, not perish because of the soul* of this man! And do not put upon us innocent blood,+ since you yourself, O Jehovah, have done according to what you have delighted in!”+ 15 Then they lifted up Joʹnah and hurled him into the sea; and the sea began to halt from its raging.+ 16 At that the men began to fear Jehovah greatly,+ and so they offered a sacrifice to Jehovah+ and made vows.+
17* Now Jehovah appointed a great fish* to swallow Joʹnah,+ so that Joʹnah came to be in the inward parts of the fish three days and three nights.+
2 Then Joʹnah prayed to Jehovah his God* from the inward parts of the fish+ 2 and said:
“Out of my distress I called out to Jehovah,+ and he proceeded to answer me.+
Out of the belly of Sheʹol* I cried for help.+
You heard my voice.+
3 When you threw me [to] the depths, into the heart of the open sea,+
Then a very river encircled me.
All your breakers and your waves—over me they passed on.+
5 Waters encircled me clear to [the] soul;+ the watery deep itself* kept enclosing me.
Weeds were wound around my head.
6 To the bottoms of [the] mountains I went down.
As for the earth, its bars were upon me for time indefinite.
But out of [the] pit you proceeded to bring up my life, O Jehovah my God.+
7 When my soul* fainted away within me,+ Jehovah was the One whom I remembered.+
Then my prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.+
8 As for those who are observing the idols of untruth, they leave their own loving-kindness.+
9 But as for me, with the voice of thanksgiving I will sacrifice to you.+
What I have vowed, I will pay.+ Salvation belongs to Jehovah.”+
10 In time Jehovah commanded* the fish, so that it vomited out Joʹnah onto the dry land.+
3 Then the word of Jehovah occurred to Joʹnah the second time, saying:+ 2 “Get up, go to Ninʹe·veh the great city, and proclaim to her the proclamation+ that I am speaking to you.”
3 At that, Joʹnah got up and went to Ninʹe·veh in accord with the word of Jehovah.*+ Now Ninʹe·veh herself proved to be a city great to God,*+ with a walking distance of three days. 4 Finally Joʹnah started to enter into the city the walking distance of one day, and he kept proclaiming and saying: “Only forty days more, and Ninʹe·veh will be overthrown.”+
5 And the men* of Ninʹe·veh began to put faith in God,+ and they proceeded to proclaim a fast and to put on sackcloth,+ from the greatest one of them even to the least one of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Ninʹe·veh,+ then he rose up from his throne and put off his official garment from himself and covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the ashes.+ 7 Furthermore, he had the cry made, and he had it said in Ninʹe·veh, by the decree of the king and his great ones, saying:
“No man and no domestic animal, no herd and no flock, should taste anything at all. None should take food. Even water they should not drink.+ 8 And let them cover themselves with sackcloth, man and domestic animal; and let them call out to God with strength and come back,+ each one from his bad way and from the violence that was in their hands. 9 Who is there knowing whether the [true] God may turn back and actually feel regret+ and turn back from his burning anger, so that we may not perish?”+
10 And the [true] God got to see their works,+ that they had turned back from their bad way;+ and so the [true] God felt regret+ over the calamity that he had spoken of causing to them; and he did not cause [it].+
4 To Joʹnah, though, it was highly displeasing,+ and he got to be hot with anger. 2 Hence he prayed to Jehovah* and said: “Ah, now, O Jehovah, was not this an affair of mine,* while I happened to be on my own ground? That is why I went ahead and ran away to Tarʹshish;+ for I knew that you are a God* gracious and merciful,+ slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness,*+ and feeling regret over the calamity.+ 3 And now, O Jehovah, take away, please, my soul*+ from me, for my dying is better than my being alive.”*+
4 In turn Jehovah said: “Have you rightly become hot with anger?”+
5 Then Joʹnah went out of the city and sat down east of the city; and gradually he made for himself there a booth, that he might sit under it in the shade+ until he would see what would become of the city.+ 6 Accordingly Jehovah God* appointed a bottle-gourd plant,* that it should come up over Joʹnah, in order to become a shade over his head, to deliver him from his calamitous state.+ And Joʹnah began to rejoice greatly over the bottle-gourd plant.
7 But the [true] God appointed a worm+ at the ascending of the dawn on the next day, that it should strike the bottle-gourd plant; and it gradually dried up.+ 8 And it came about that, as soon as the sun shone forth, God* also went on to appoint a parching east wind,+ and the sun kept striking upon the head of Joʹnah, so that he was swooning away;+ and he kept asking that his soul* might die, and he repeatedly said: “My dying off is better than my being alive.”*+
9 And God proceeded to say to Joʹnah: “Have you rightly become hot with anger over the bottle-gourd plant?”+
At that he said: “I have rightly become hot with anger, to the point of death.” 10 But Jehovah said: “You, for your part, felt sorry for the bottle-gourd plant, which you did not toil upon or make get big, which proved to be a mere growth of a night* and perished as a mere growth of a night. 11 And, for my part, ought I not to feel sorry for Ninʹe·veh the great city,+ in which there exist more than one hundred and twenty thousand* men* who do not at all know the difference between their right hand and their left, besides many domestic animals?”+
Meaning “Dove.” Heb., Yoh·nahʹ; Gr., I·o·nasʹ; Lat., Ioʹna.
“Joppa.” Heb., Ya·phohʹ; Gr., I·opʹpen; Lat., Iopʹpen.
“Wind.” Heb., ruʹach; Gr., pneuʹma; Lat., venʹtum. See Ge 1:2 ftn, “Force.”
“His god.” Heb., ʼelo·havʹ; Gr., the·onʹ; Lat., deʹum.
Lit., “the principal one of the sailors.”
“Your god!” Heb., ʼelo·heyʹkha; Gr., the·onʹ; Lat., deʹum.
“The [true] God.” Heb., ha·ʼElo·himʹ. See App 1F.
“The men.” Heb., ha·ʼana·shimʹ, pl. of ʼish.
“Because of the soul.” Heb., beneʹphesh; Gr., psy·khesʹ; Lat., aʹni·ma. See App 4A.
MLXXVg begin chap. 2 here.
“Fish.” Heb., dagh; Gr., keʹtei, “sea monster; huge fish”; Lat., piʹscem.
“His God.” Heb., ʼElo·havʹ.
“Sheol.” Heb., sheʼohlʹ; Gr., haiʹdou; Lat., in·ferʹni. See App 4B.
Or, “Indeed (Surely) I shall.” Th, “How shall I?”
Or, “the surging waters themselves.” Heb., tehohmʹ; LXXVg, “an abyss.”
“My soul.” Heb., naph·shiʹ; Gr., psy·khenʹ; Lat., aʹni·ma. See App 4A.
Lit., “said to.”
See App 1C §3.
Or, “extremely great; divinely great.” Heb., gedhoh·lahʹ lEʼ·lo·himʹ; Gr., me·gaʹle toi The·oiʹ. Compare the expression “divinely beautiful” in Ac 7:20, where see ftn.
See 1:10 ftn.
See App 1C §2.
“An affair of mine.” Or, “my word.”
“A God.” Heb., ʼEl; Lat., Deʹus.
Or, “loyal love.” Heb., cheʹsedh.
See 2:7 ftn.
Or, “my life.”
“Jehovah God,” MTLXXSyVg. See Ge 2:4 ftn, “God.”
Or, “castor-oil plant.” Heb., qi·qa·yohnʹ.
“God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ; Gr., ho The·osʹ; TVg, “Jehovah”; Sy, “Jehovah God.”
“His soul.” Heb., naph·shohʹ; Gr., psy·khenʹ; Lat., aʹni·mae. See App 4A.
Or, “than my life.” Heb., me·chai·yaiʹ.
Or, “just a night old.” Lit., “a son of a night.”
Lit., “twelve ten-thousands.”
Or, “earthling men.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.