Jonah

Jonah is one of the prophets, who got himself swallowed by a whale for disobeying God. So Jonah spent three days in what he described as “the belly of hell,” before the whale spat him out, after which, Jonah still had to obey God and preach to Nineveh.

I guess God noticed, as he was creating the whales, that some of them would be large enough to swallow a man. No doubt, that’s part of why he made them that size.

So then, a better plan for Jonah would have been, when God told him to go preach, just go do what God said, and skip the part about the inside of a whale.

But Jonah did a good job preaching to Nineveh, and that city did an about-face, to use a military term. I’ll be glad to share heaven with Jonah.]

___Jonah chapter 1 1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that large city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me." 3 But Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa, and he 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. 4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty storm at sea, so that the ship was nearly broken. 5 Then the sailors were afraid, and each of them cried to his god, and threw out the merchandise that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay fast asleep. 6 So the captain of the ship came to him, and said to him, what do you mean, O sleeper? "Get up, call on your God, if perhaps God will think about us, so we don't die." 7 And they all said to their co-workers, "Let's draw straws, so we'll know which of us is the cause of this evil that’s on us." So they drew straws, and it came out Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, "Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us, what is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?" 9 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." 10 Then the men were very afraid, and said to him, "Why have you done this?" For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, so the sea will be calm to us?" For the sea rolled, and was tempestuous. 12 And he said to them, "Take me up, and throw me into the sea, so the sea shall be calm for you, because I know that because of me this great tempest is on you." 13 But the men rowed hard to bring it to land, but they couldn't, for the sea rolled, and was tempestuous against them. 14 So they shouted to the Lord, "We beg of you, O Lord, we beg of you, don't let us die for this man's life, and don't lay on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you." 15 So they took up Jonah, and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord very much, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows. 17 Now the Lord had prepared a whale to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the whale days and three nights.

___Jonah chapter 2 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, 2 And said, "I cried because of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me, out of the belly of hell I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you threw me into the deep, in the middle of the seas, and the floods surrounded me, all your billows and your waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, I am thrown out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. 5 The waters surrounded me, even to the soul, the depth closed around me, the weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, the earth with her bars was around me forever, yet you've brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. 7 When my soul fainted inside me I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." 10 And the Lord spoke to the whale, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.

___Jonah chapter 3 1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that large city, and preach to it the preaching that I tell you." 3 So Jonah got up, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a very large city of three-day's journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he shouted, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 For word came to the king of Nineveh, and he got up from his throne, and he laid his robe off of him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything, let them not eat, nor drink water, 8 But let man and animal be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God, yes, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so we don't die?" 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God changed his mind about evil that he had said that he would do to them, and he didn't do it.

___Jonah chapter 4 1 But it very much displeased Jonah, and he was very angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord, and said, "I pray you, O Lord, wasn't this what I said when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and change your mind about the evil. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beg of you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 4 Then the Lord said, "Are you doing well to be angry?" 5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and made himself a booth there, and sat under it in the shadow, 'til he could see what would become of the city. 6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, so it would be a shadow over his head, to give him relief from his grief. So Jonah was very glad about the gourd. 7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it struck the gourd so that it dried up. 8 And when the sun arose, God prepared a strong east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah's head, and he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." 9 And God said to Jonah, "Are you doing well to be angry about the gourd?" And he said, "I do well to be angry, even until death." 10 Then the Lord said, "You've had pity on the gourd, for which you haven't labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night, and died in a night, 11 And shouldn't I spare Nineveh, that large city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand people that can't tell the difference between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?"

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