He said to them, “I am a Hebrew! And I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

Because the storm was growing worse and worse, they said to him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

Instead, they tried to row back to land, but they were not able to do so because the storm kept growing worse and worse.

Those who worship worthless idols forfeit the mercy that could be theirs.

So God sent a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up.

The Lord said, “You were upset about this little plant, something for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day.

The Lord said to Jonah son of Amittai,

They said to him, “Tell us, whose fault is it that this disaster has overtaken us? What’s your occupation? Where do you come from? What’s your country? And who are your people?”

The men feared the Lord greatly, and earnestly vowed to offer lavish sacrifices to the Lord.

and said, “I called out to the Lord from my distress, and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried out for help, and you heard my prayer.

The Lord said to Jonah a second time,

“Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”

So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city – it required three days to walk through it!)

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes.

When God saw their actions – they turned from their evil way of living! – God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them.