fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying: 'Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing; let them not feed, nor drink water; 8but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?'
10And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, which He said He would do unto them; and He did it not. 41But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2And he prayed unto the Lord, and said: 'I pray Thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in mine own country? Therefore I fled beforehand unto Tarshish; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and compassionate, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy, and repentest Thee of the evil. 3Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.' 4And the Lord said: 'Art thou greatly angry?'
5Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. 6And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his evil. So Jonah was exceeding glad because of the gourd. 7But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered. 8And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said: 'It is better for me to die than to live.' 9And God said to Jonah 'Art thou greatly angry for the gourd?' And he said: 'I am greatly angry, even unto death.' 10And the Lord said: 'Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night; 11and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern Between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?'
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