The Book of Jonah

1 And Jehovah’s word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, 2* “Go off to the great city Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me”; 3 and Jonah stood up to get away to Spain out of Jehovah’s presence, and went down to Joppa and found a ship sailing for Spain, and paid his fare and went aboard to sail with them to Spain out of Jehovah’s presence. 4* But Jehovah launched a great wind over the sea, and there came very rough weather on the sea, and the ship was ready to be wrecked; 5 and the sailors were afraid, and each cried to his god, and flung into the sea the things they had in the ship, to have it be easier on them; but Jonah had gone down into the hold and lain down and was fast asleep. 6* And the captain came where he was and said to him “What are you about, fast asleep? get up and call out to your god, maybe the god will have some consideration for us and we shall not be lost.”

7 And they said to each other “Come on, let us cast lots and know on whose account we are having this bad luck”; and they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8* And they said to him “Please tell us what errand you are on and where you are going from, what country you are from and what people you belong to.” 9 And he said to them “I am a Hebrew, and revere Jehovah, the god of the heavens, who made the sea and the land.” 10 And the men were in great fear, and said to him “What is this you have done?” because the men knew he was trying to get away out of Jehovah’s presence, because he had told them. 11 And they said to him “What are we to do to you to have the sea calm down?” because the sea was getting stormier and stormier. 12 And he said to them “Pick me up and fling me into the sea to have the sea calm down; for I know it is on my account you are having this great storm.”

13 And the men rowed to get back to land, but could not, because the sea was getting stormier and stormier against them. 14 And they called out to Jehovah “Please, Jehovah, may we not perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with shedding innocent blood, because you, Jehovah, did as you preferred”; 15 and they picked Jonah up and flung him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging. 16 And the men conceived a great fear of Jehovah, and made a sacrifice to Jehovah and made vows.

17 And Jehovah provided a great fish to swallow Jonah; and Jonah was in the fish’s stomach three days and three nights.

2 And Jonah prayed to his God Jehovah from the fish’s stomach, 2 and said

8* Those who attend to futile superstitions are leaving their help,

10 And Jehovah told the fish what to do, and it vomited Jonah out to the land.

3 And Jehovah’s word came to Jonah a second time 2 “Go off to the great city Nineveh and preach to it what I dictate to you”; 3* and Jonah went off to Nineveh in accordance with Jehovah’s word. And Nineveh was a stupendously great city, a three days’ walk; 4* and Jonah began going into the city, going one day’s walk in, and preached “Forty days more and Nineveh is overthrown.” 5 And the men of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloths, from the greatest to the least of them; 6 and the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he stood up off his throne and laid off his grandeur and covered himself with a sackcloth and sat on the ashes, 7 and had proclamation made in Nineveh by authority of the king and his magnates “Let man and beast, cattle and sheep, not taste anything, not be pastured, and not drink water, 8** and cover themselves with sackcloths, man and beast, and call out loudly to God, and turn back from their wicked ways and from their ill-gotten gains; 9 who knows but God will turn back and repent, and desist from his anger, and we shall not perish?” 10 And God saw their actions, that they turned back from their wicked ways, and God repented of the evil he had threatened to do to them, and did not do it.

4 And Jonah took it very hard and was angry, 2 and prayed to Jehovah “Now, Jehovah, was not this what I said while I was still on my own soil? that was why I tried to head it off by getting away to Spain, because I knew you were a deity kindly and tenderhearted, patient and very friendly, and would repent of the evil. 3 And now, Jehovah, take my life away, because it is better I should die than live.” 4* And Jehovah said “Thoroughly angry, are you?”

5 And Jonah went out of the city and established himself out in front of the city, and made himself a booth there and sat down in the shade under it till he should see what would happen to the city. 6** And Jehovah provided a gourd vine, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to free him from his trouble; and Jonah was very glad for the vine. 7* And Jehovah God prepared a worm at daybreak the next day, which attacked the vine and it dried up; 8** and when the sun rose God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun struck on Jonah’s head, and he collapsed and asked for death and said “it is better I should die than live.” 9*** And God said to Jonah “Thoroughly angry about the gourd vine, are you?” and he said “I am thoroughly angry, fit to die.”

10* And Jehovah said “You feel benevolent toward the vine, which you had not worked on nor raised, a one-night growth and a one-night loss; 11 and was I not to feel benevolent toward the great city Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand human beings that do not know their right hand from their left, and many beasts?”

MARGINAL NOTES TO JONAH