Jonah 1:17-3:10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
17 [a]But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.(A)
A Psalm of Thanksgiving
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called to the Lord out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 You cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.(B)
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
how[b] shall I look again
upon your holy temple?’(C)
5 The waters closed in over me;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped around my head(D)
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the Pit,
O Lord my God.(E)
7 As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.(F)
8 Those who worship vain idols
forsake their true loyalty.(G)
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”(H)
10 Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto the dry land.
Conversion of Nineveh
3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying,(I) 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.(J)
6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.(K) 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water.(L) 8 Humans and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands.(M) 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”(N)
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.(O)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.