1 And Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God from the belly of the fish,
2 And said, — I cried in my distress to Jehovah, and he heard me; (75) From the belly of the grave I cried, thou didst hear my voice.
3 But cast me hadst thou into the deep, Into the midst of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; All thy billows and waves over me passed:
4 Then I said, — “I am driven from the sight of thine eyes; But I would again see the temple of thy holiness.”
5 Beset me did the waters even to the soul, The deep on every side surrounded me, The sedge was wrapped around my head:
6 To the roots of the mountains I descended, The earth with its bars was around me forever: But to ascend hast thou made my life from the grave, O Jehovah my God.
7 When fail did my soul within me, Jehovah did I remember, And enter did my prayer into the temple of thy holiness.
8 They who observe lying vanities, Their own mercy forsake: (87)
9 But I, with the voice of praise, will sacrifice to thee; What I have vowed will I pay: To Jehovah belongs salvation.
10 And Jehovah commanded the fish, and it cast forth Jonah on the dry land.
Chapter 3
1 And the word of Jehovah came to Jonah the second time, saying, —
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, to that great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I command thee.” (92)
3 And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the command of Jehovah.
4 Now Nineveh was a very great city, a journey of three days. And Jonah began to enter a journey of one day, and cried and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
5 And the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them:
6 For word had come to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and cast aside his splendid robe from him, and put on sackcloth and sat on ashes;
7 And it was proclaimed and published through Nineveh, by the counsel of the king and his nobles, saying, — “Man and beast! Ox and sheep! Let them taste nothing, let them not be fed, and let them not drink water;
8 And let man and beast put on sackcloth, and cry to God mightily; (107) and return let every one from his evil way, and from the plunder that is in their hands.
9 Who knows, whether God will change and repent, and turn away from the fury of his wrath, that we perish not?”
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil which he had declared that he would do to them, and did it not.