Jonah was gone down into the innermost parts of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, What is this that thou hast done? (For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.) Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea grew more and more tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land, but they could not: for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made

VOWS.

II. The Prayer of Jonah

I called out of mine affliction unto the LORD,

And he answered me;

Out of the belly* of hell cried I,

And thou heardest my voice.

* And the LORD prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly.

For thou didst cast me into the depth,

In the heart of the seas;

And the flood was round about me,

All thy waves and thy billows passed over me.

And I said, I am cast out from before thine eyes:
Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
The waters compassed me about,

Even to the soul.

The deep was round about me;

The weeds were wrapped about my head.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;

The earth with her bars closed upon me for ever.

Yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God: When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer came in unto thee,

Into thine holy temple.

They that regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy:

But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed:

Salvation is of the LORD.†

III.-The Preaching at Nineveh

And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his

† And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying: 'Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?' And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, which he said he would do unto them: and he did it not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. And the LORD said, Doest thou well to be angry? Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his evil case. So Jonah was exceeding glad because of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. And the LORD said: Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city; wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

Passages from the Book of Nahum

The LORD is a jealous God and avengeth; the LORD avengeth and is full of wrath; the LORD taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by

him.

The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that put their trust in him.

But with an overrunning flood he will make a full end of the place thereof, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face:
Keep the munition; watch the way;

Make thy loins strong,

Fortify thy power mightily.

The shield of his mighty men is made red:

The valiant men are in scarlet:

The chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation,
And the spears are shaken terribly.

The chariots rage in the streets,

They justle one against another in the broad ways:

The appearance of them is like torches,

They run like the lightnings.

He remembereth his worthies:

They stumble in their march;

They make haste to the wall thereof,
And the mantelet is prepared.

The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved:
And Huzzab is uncovered; she is carried away;

And her handmaids mourn as with the voice of doves,
Tabering upon their breasts.

But Nineveh hath been from of old like a pool of water;

Yet they flee away:

'Stand, stand'

But none looketh back.

Take ye the spoil of silver,
Take the spoil of gold:

For there is none end of the store,

The glory of all pleasant furniture.

She is empty, and void, and waste:

And the heart melteth, and the knees smite together; And anguish is in all loins,

And the faces of them all are waxed pale.

Where is the den of the lions,

And the feeding place of the young lions,

Where the lion and the lioness walked,

The lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?

Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria,

Thy worthies are at rest:

Thy people are scattered upon the mountains,

And there is none to gather them.

There is no assuaging of thy hurt;

Thy wound is grievous:

All that hear the bruit of thee clap the hands over thee:

For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?