My Nineveh

The word of YHWH came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

But Jonah ran away from YHWH and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from YHWH.

But YHWH provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

And YHWH commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Then the word of YHWH came to Jonah a second time: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."

Jonah obeyed the word of YHWH and went to Nineveh... He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to YHWH, "O YHWH, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O YHWH, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."

But YHWH replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"

...YHWH said, "...Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"


Jonah 1:1-3, 17, 2:10, 3:1-3a,4b,5, 10, 4:1-4, 10a,11 NIV

[YHWH, I praise you today for your love for the people in my "Nineveh"]