Jonah 4

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

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, "I pray thee, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repentest of evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take my life from me, I beseech thee, for it is better for me to die than to live."

And the Lord said, "Do you do well to be angry?"

Then Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.

And the Lord God appointed a plant, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm which attacked the plant, so that it withered.

When the sun rose, God appointed a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah so that he was faint; and he asked that he might die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?"

And he said, "I do well to be angry, angry enough to die."

And the Lord said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night, and perished in a night.

And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

>> to the Jonah Sarcophagus >>

Page by Jona Lendering for
Livius.Org, 2007
Revision: 12 January 2007