The Wedding Dance by Matthew Butcher - HTML preview

Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

4. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.

5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

6. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
7. Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
8. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9. He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10. This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
11. The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12. “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13. Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.
14. Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.”
15. Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.

16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.

Jonah’s Prayer.

17. Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Study (1-1) Now More strictly, And; but the English quite adequately represents the Hebrew style of beginning a narrative, whether it formed a book by itself, or merely continued an historical account. (See the opening of Exodus, Leviticus, and

other historical books; Ezekiel 1:1; and comp.1Kings 17:1, )

Jonah 2’

2 -1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said:

“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.

From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

3

You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.

4

I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ 5

The engulfing waters threatened me,[b] the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

6

To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.

7

“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

8

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

9

But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good.

I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

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