The Lord said unto the prophet Jonah: Go to Nineveh, the great city, and
proclaim that it shall be destroyed, for its sins are great. But Jonah
went aboard a ship to flee over the sea. The Lord sent a tempest, so the
ship was at the point of sinking. The sailors said one to another: Let
us cast lots to see whose fault it is that such evil befalls us. The lot
fell on Jonah, and they cast him into the sea; and it was calm. The Lord
sent a great fish that swallowed Jonah, and he was in the belly of the
fish for three days and three nights. The Lord commanded the fish, and
it cast Jonah up on land. The Lord now spoke a second time to Jonah: Go
to Nineveh and proclaim what I shall bid thee. Jonah went into Nineveh
and cried: In 40 days Nineveh shall be destroyed! The people repented,
and the king put off his royal garments and clothed himself in sack
cloth and ashes. God repented of the evil He had spoken, and He spared
Nineveh. Then Jonah murmured and said: Did it not go as I thought while
I was in my country, and would flee over the sea? For I knew that Thou
art a God merciful and slow to anger, and repentest of evil.
Jonah had gone outside the city and remained there to see what would
become of the city. The Lord let a plant spring up to give shade for his
head, and Jonah was fond of the plant. In the morning the Lord prepared
a worm, and it stung the plant, so it withered. And there came a sultry
east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and he said: It is
better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord: Thou hast pity on
the plant for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow,
because it withered; and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great
city, wherein are more than twelve times 10,000 persons that cannot
discern between their right and their left hand, and also much cattle?
(The Book of Jonah.)