The Hebrew Prophets

When the news reached the king of Ninveh, he got up from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.

He then had this proclamation made throughout Ninveh: "By decree of the king and his nobles, no person or animal, herd or flock, is to put anything in his mouth; they are neither to eat nor drink water.

They must be covered with sackcloth, both people and animals; and they are to cry out to God with all their might - let each of them turn from his evil way and from the violence they practice.

Who knows? Maybe God will change his mind, relent and turn from his fierce anger; and then we won't perish."

When God saw by their deeds that they had turned from their evil way, he relented and did not bring on them the punishment he had threatened.

But this was very displeasing to Yonah, and he became angry.

He prayed to ADONAI, "Now, ADONAI, didn't I say this would happen, when I was still in my own country? That's why I tried to get away to Tarshish ahead of time! I knew you were a God who is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in grace, and that you relent from inflicting punishment.

Therefore, ADONAI, please, just take my life away from me; it's better for me to be dead than alive!"

ADONAI asked, "Is it right for you to be so angry?"

Yonah left the city and found a place east of the city, where he made himself a shelter and sat down under it, in its shade, to see what would happen to the city.

ADONAI, God, prepared a castor-bean plant and made it grow up over Yonah to shade his head and relieve his discomfort. So Yonah was delighted with the castor-bean plant.

But at dawn the next day God prepared a worm, which attacked the castor-bean plant, so that it dried up.

Then, when the sun rose, God prepared a scorching east wind; and the sun beat down on Yonah's head so hard that he grew faint and begged that he could die, saying, "I would be better off dead than alive."

God asked Yonah, "Is it right for you to be so angry about the castor-bean plant?" He answered, "Yes, it's right for me to be so angry that I could die!"

ADONAI said, "You're concerned over the castor-bean plant, which cost you no effort; you didn't make it grow; it came up in a night and perished in a night.

So shouldn't I be concerned about the great city of Ninveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left - not to mention all the animals?"

This is the word of ADONAI that came to Mikhah the Morashti during the days of Yotam, Achaz and Y'chizkiyah, kings of Y'hudah, which he saw concerning Shomron and Yerushalayim:

Listen, peoples, all of you! Pay attention, earth, and everything in it! Adonai ELOHIM will witness against you, Adonai, from his holy temple.

For - look! - ADONAI is coming out of his place, coming down to tread on the high places of the land.

Beneath him the mountains will melt, the valleys split open like wax before fire, like water poured down a steep slope.

All this is because of the crime of Ya'akov and the sins of the house of Isra'el. What is the crime of Ya'akov? Isn't it Shomron? And what are the high places of Y'hudah? Aren't they Yerushalayim?

"So I will make Shomron a heap in the countryside, a place for planting vineyards; I will pour her stones down into the valley, laying bare her foundations.

All her carved images will be smashed to pieces, all she earned consumed by fire; and I will reduce her idols to rubble. She amassed them from a whore's wages, and as a whore's wages they will be spent again."

This is why I howl and wail, why I go barefoot and stripped, why I howl like the jackals and mourn like the ostriches.

For her wound cannot be healed, and now it is coming to Y'hudah as well; it reaches even to the gate of my people, to Yerushalayim itself.