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The Prophecy
of Jonas 4
And Jonas was exceedingly troubled, and was angry:
And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech thee,
O Lord, is not this what I said, when I was yet in my
own country? therefore I went before to flee into Tharsis:
for I know that thou art a gracious and merciful God,
patient, and of much compassion, and easy to forgive
evil.
And now, O Lord, I beseech thee take my life from me:
for it is better for me to die than to live.
And the Lord said: Dost thou think thou hast reason
to be angry?
Then Jonas went out of the city, and sat toward the
east side of the city: and he made himself a booth there,
and he sat under it in the shadow, till he might see
what would befall the city.
And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over
the head of Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, and
to cover him (for he was fatigued): and Jonas was exceeding
glad of the ivy.
But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the
following day: and it struck the ivy and it withered.
And when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot
and burning wind: and the sun beat upon the head of
Jonas, and he broiled with the heat: and he desired
for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better
for me to die than to live.
And the Lord said to Jonas: Dost thou think thou hast
reason to be angry, for the ivy? And he said: I am angry
with reason even unto death.
And the Lord said: Thou art grieved for the ivy, for
which thou hast not laboured, nor made it to grow, which
in one night came up, and in one night perished.
And shall not I spare Ninive, that great city, in which
there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons
that know not how to distinguish between their right
hand and their left, and many beasts?
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