Jonah 1:17-3:5

English Standard Version

A Great Fish Swallows Jonah

¹⁷^[a] And the Lord appointed^[b] a great fish to swallow up Jonah. ^(A)And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah's Prayer

2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, ²saying,

^(B)“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
    and he answered me;
^(C)out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
    ^(D)and you heard my voice.
³^(E)For you cast me into the deep,
    into the heart of the seas,
    and the flood surrounded me;
^(F)all your waves and your billows
    passed over me.
⁴^(G)Then I said, ‘I am driven away
    from your sight;
^(H)yet I shall again look
    upon your holy temple.’
⁵^(I)The waters closed in over me ^(J)to take my life;
    the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
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.
⁷When my life was fainting away,
    I remembered the Lord,
^(K)and my prayer came to you,
    into your holy temple.
⁸^(L)Those who pay regard to vain idols
    ^(M)forsake their hope of steadfast love.
⁹^(N)But I with the voice of thanksgiving
    will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    ^(O)Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

¹⁰And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ²“Arise, go to ^(P)Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” ³So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now ^(Q)Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,^[c] three days' journey in breadth.^[d] ⁴Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” ⁵^(R)And the people of Nineveh believed God. ^(S)They called for a fast and ^(T)put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.