{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_27654/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_27654","id":"gutenberg_27654","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27654","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Jonah","Category: British Literature","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"THE STORY OF THE PROPHET JONAS.\n\nWilliam Tyndale 1531 translation.\n\nSpelling has been modernized, but nothing else altered.\n\n\nNote:\nThis file is the public domain version of Project Gutenberg eBook #12076\n\n\n\n\nThe first Chapter.\n\nThe word of the Lord came unto the prophet Jonas the son of\nAmithai saying: rise and get thee to Ninevehh that great city and preach\nunto them, how that their wickedness is come up before me.\n\nAnd Jonas made him ready to flee to Tharsis from the presence\nof the Lord, and gat him down to Joppa, and found there a ship ready to\ngo to Tharsis, and paid his fare, and went aboard, to go with them to\nTharsis from the presence of the Lord.\n\nBut the Lord hurled a great wind in to the sea, so that there\nwas a mighty tempest in the sea: insomuch that the ship was like to go\nin pieces. And the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his\ngod, and cast out the goods that were in the ship in to the sea, to\nlighten it of them. But Jonas gat him under the hatches and laid him\ndown and slumbered. And the master of the ship came to him and said\nunto him, why slumberest thou? up! and call unto thy god, that God may\nthink on us, that we perish not.\n\nAnd they said one to another, come and let us cast lots, to\nknow for whose cause we are thus troubled. And they cast lots. And the\nlot fell upon Jonas.\n\nThen they said unto him, tell us for whose cause we are thus\ntroubled: what is thine occupation, whence comest thou, how is thy\ncountry called, and of what nation art thou?\n\nAnd he answered them, I am an Hebrew: and the Lord God of\nheaven which made both sea and dry land, I fear. Then were the men\nexceedingly afraid and said unto him, why didst thou so? For they knew\nthat he was fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told\nthem.\n\nThen they unto him, what shall we do unto thee, that the sea\nmay cease from troubling us? For the sea wrought and was troublous. And\nhe answered them, take me and cast me in to the sea, and so shall it\nlet you be in rest: for I wot, it is for my sake, that this great\ntempest is come upon you. Nevertheless the men assayed with rowing to\nbring the ship to land: but it would not be, because the sea so wrought\nand was so troublous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord\nand said: O Lord let us not perish for this mans death, neither lay\ninnocent blood unto our charge: for thou Lord even as thy pleasure was,\nso thou hast done.\n\nAnd then they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea, and the\nsea left raging. And the men feared the Lord exceedingly: and\nsacrificed sacrifice unto the Lord: and vowed vows.\n\n\nThe second Chapter.\n\nBut the Lord prepared a great fish, to swallow up Jonas. And so\nwas Jonas in the bowels of the fish three days and three nights. And\nJonas prayed unto the Lord his God out of the bowels of the fish.\n\nAnd he said: in my tribulation I called unto the Lord, and he\nanswered me: out of the belly of hell I cried, and thou heardest my\nvoice. For thou hadst cast me down deep in the midst of the sea and the\nflood compassed me about: and all thy waves and rolls of water went\nover me: and I thought that I had been cast away out of thy sight. But\nI will yet again look toward thy holy temple. The water compassed me\neven unto the very soul of me: the deep lay about me: and the weeds\nwere wrapped about mine head. And I went down unto the bottom of the\nhills, and was barred in with earth on every side for ever. And yet\nthou Lord my God broughtest up my life again out of corruption. When my\nsoul fainted in me, I thought on the Lord: and my prayer came in unto\nthee, even into thy holy temple. They that observe vain vanities, have\nforsaken him that was merciful unto them. But I will sacrifice unto\nthee with the voice of thanksgiving, and will pay that that I have\nvowed, that saving cometh of the Lord.\n\nAnd the Lord spake unto the fish: and it cast out Jonas again\nupon the dry land.\n\n\nThe third Chapter.\n\nThen came the word of the Lord unto Jonas again saying: up, and\nget thee to Nineveh that great city, and preach unto them the preaching\nwhich I bade thee. And he arose and went to Nineveh at the Lord's\ncommandment. Nineveh was a great city unto God, containing three days\njourney.\n\nAnd Jonas went to and entered in to the city even a days\njourney, and cried saying: There shall not pass forty days but Nineveh\nshall be overthrown.\n\nAnd the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed fasting,\nand arrayed themselves in sackcloth, as well the great as the small of\nthem.\n\nAnd the tidings came unto the king of Nineveh, which arose out\nof his seat, and did his apparel off and put on sackcloth, and sat him\ndown in ashes. And it was cried and commanded in Nineveh by the\nauthority of the king and of his lords saying: see that neither man or\nbeast, ox or sheep taste ought at all, and that they neither feed or\ndrink water.\n\nAnd they put on sackcloth both man and beast, and cried unto\nGod mightily, and turned every man his wicked way, and from doing wrong\nin which they were accustomed, saying: who can tell whether God will\nturn and repent, and cease from his fierce wrath, that we perish not?\nAnd when God saw their works, how they turned from their wicked ways,\nhe repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them, and did it\nnot.\n\n\nThe fourth Chapter.\n\nWherefore Jonas was sore discontent and angry. And he prayed\nunto the Lord and said: O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet\nin my country? And therefore I hasted rather to flee to Tharsis: for I\nknew well enough that thou wast a merciful god, full of compassion,\nlong ere thou be angry and of great mercy and repentest when thou art\ncome to take punishment. Now therefore take my life from me, for I had\nlever die than live. And the Lord said unto Jonas, art thou so angry?\n\nAnd Jonas gat him out of the city and sat him down on the east\nside thereof, and made him there a booth and sat thereunder in the\nshadow, till he might see what should chance unto the city.\n\nAnd the Lord prepared as it were a wild vine which sprang up\nover Jonas, that he might have shadow over his head, to deliver him out\nof his pain. And Jonas was exceeding glad of the wild vine.\n\nAnd the Lord ordained a worm against the spring of the morrow\nmorning which smote the wild vine that it withered away. And as soon\nas the sun was up, God prepared a fervent east wind: so that the sun\nbeat over the head of Jonas, that he fainted again and wished unto his\nsoul that he might die, and said, it is better for me to die than to\nlive.\n\nAnd God said unto Jonas, art thou so angry for thy wild vine?\nAnd he said, I am angry a good, even on to the death. And the Lord\nsaid, thou hast compassion on a wild vine, whereon thou bestowedest no\nlabour nor made it grow, which sprang up in one night and perished in\nanother: and should not I have compassion on Nineveh that great city,\nwherein there is a multitude of people, even above an hundred thousand\nthat know not their right hand from the left, besides much cattle?","title":"The Story Of The Prophet Jonas","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":1362}