Jonah 2

Detail of the Jonah Sarcophagus. Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz. Photo Marco Prins.

The Biblical book of Jonah tells the charming, all too human story about a prophet who reluctantly does his job. A brief introduction can be found here.

The translation offered here is the Revised Standard Version. The pictures are from a Christian sarcophagus.

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,

saying,

"I called to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol [1] I cried, and thou didst hear my voice.

For thou didst cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas,
and the flood was round about me;
all thy waves and thy billows passed over me.

Then I said, 'I am cast out from thy presence;
how shall I again look upon thy holy temple?'

The waters closed in over me, the deep was round about me;
weeds were wrapped about my head

at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me for ever;
yet thou didst bring up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God.