God

“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”

Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

Then the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart.

The captain approached him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God. Perhaps this God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”

“I am a Hebrew,” replied Jonah. “I worship the LORD, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”

Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

So they cried out to the LORD: “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life! Do not charge us with innocent blood! For You, O LORD, have done as You pleased.”

Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him.

Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God,

saying: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the belly of Sheol I called for help, and You heard my voice.

For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me.

At this, I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’

To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God!

As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple.

But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the LORD!”

And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:

“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”

This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.

And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.

Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.

Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”

When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.

So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.