The Lord said ¹  to Jonah son of Amittai, ² 

The Lord said to Jonah ¹  a second time,

and said, “I ¹  called out to the Lord from my distress, and he answered me; ²  from the belly of Sheol ³  I cried out for help, and you heard my prayer. ⁴ 

He issued a proclamation and said, ¹  “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water.

Who knows? ¹  Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent ²  and turn from his fierce anger ³  so that we might not die.” ⁴ 

He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought ¹  would happen ²  when I was in my own country. ³  This is what I tried to prevent ⁴  by attempting to escape to Tarshish! ⁵  – because I knew ⁶  that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger ⁷  and abounding ⁸  in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. ⁹ 

When the news ¹  reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes.

The ship’s captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? ¹  Get up! Cry out ²  to your god! Perhaps your god ³  might take notice of us ⁴  so that we might not die!”

When the sun began to shine, God sent ¹  a hot ²  east wind. So the sun beat down ³  on Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. So he despaired of life, ⁴  and said, “I would rather die than live!” ⁵