The Lord told Jonah again the second time, Get up and go to Nineveh, that great big city, and
yell out to them the words I tell you.
So Jonah got up and went as the Lord told him.
Nineveh was so big that it took 3 days to walk from one side to the other side. Jonah walked into
big city for a day and then stood still and yelled, In 40 days Nineveh will be ruined.
The people believed what Jonah said and stopped all their bad stuff and turned to the Lord God
their Maker, all the people did this, even the king.
The king said, Don’t anyone eat or drink anything, both people and animals, but just pray hard to
the Lord God. Let everyone stop hitting people and hurting people to get what you want. Maybe God will stop His plan and not let us be ruined.
The Lord God saw that the people turned away from their bad stuff and so He didn’t let them be
ruined for all the bad they did.
But Jonah was not happy about this. He got mad.
He talked to the Lord and said, Isn’t this just what I said you’d do when I was back in my own
country before I ran away to go across the sea far away from You?
Because I knew that You are kind and full of love and would turn away from spanking them if they
turned back to You.
So now, please, just kill me. It is better for me to die than to live.
The Lord said to Jonah, Is it the right thing for you to be mad about
this?
Jonah stomped off and went outside the city on the east side and made a little hut to sit under
its shade. Then he sat there to watch what would happen to the city.
The Lord God made a big plant with gourds on it grow up over Jonah’s head to make him cool. Jonah
was real happy about the plant.
But the next day the Lord God send a big fat worm to eat the plant and the plant shrunk up to
nothing.
Then when the sun came up God sent a strong, hot wind from the east and the sun beat down on
Jonah’s head and he got weak and wanted to die again.He said, It is better for
me to die than to live.
The Lord said, Is it right for you to be mad about the plant?
Jonah yelled, IT IS RIGHT until I die!
The Lord told Jonah, You liked the gourd plant a lot very but you didn’t make grow. It came up one night and then was gone the
next.
Shouldn’t I care about Nineveh, the great city, that I made, that has more than 120,000 little
kids in it, too little to know their right hand from their left and many, many animals I made are there too.