FIRST READING
Jonah 1:1-17
1Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2“Go
at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their
wickedness has come up before me.” 3But Jonah set out to flee to
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and
found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to
go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. 4But the
Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came
upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. 5Then the mariners
were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in
the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone
down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep.
6The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep?
Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that
we do not perish.” 7The sailors said to one another, “Come, let us cast
lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come
upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8Then they said to
him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your
occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of
what people are you?” 9“I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the
Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10Then the
men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have
done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the
Lord, because he had told them so. 11Then they said to him, “What shall
we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was
growing more and more tempestuous. 12He said to them, “Pick me up
and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I
know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.”
13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but
they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them.
14Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us
perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent
blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15So they picked
Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging.
16Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice
to the Lord and made vows. 17But the Lord provided a large fish to
swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and
three nights.
SECOND READING
Jonah 3:1-10
1The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2“Get up, go
to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell
you.” 3So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of
the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk
across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he
cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5And the
people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone,
great and small, put on sackcloth. 6When the news reached the king of
Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself
with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had a proclamation made in
Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or
animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor
shall they drink water. 8Human beings and animals shall be covered with
sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their
evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knows? God
may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so
that we do not perish.” 10When God saw what they did, how they turned
from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he
had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
THIRD READING
Jonah 4:1-11
1But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2He
prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was
still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning;
for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3And
now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die
than to live.” 4And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” city,
and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting
to see what would become of the city. 6The Lord God appointed a bush,
and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save
him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7But
when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked
the bush, so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry
east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was
faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than
to live.” 9But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the
bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” 10Then the Lord said,
“You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and
which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a
night. 11And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in
which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who
do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
Reader: Word of God. Word of life.
All: Thanks be to God.
