Jonah and the Whale
From the Holy Bible, Hoehn Version

by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2014, all rights reserved.

Chapter 1

We will present the four chapters of the book of Jonah here.  

Then there will be some words from this author.

Here is the book of Jonah from the Holy Bible, Hoehn Version--  

___Jonah chapter 1
 1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
 2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that large city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me."
 3 But Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
 4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty storm at sea, so that the ship was nearly broken.
 5 Then the sailors were afraid, and each of them cried to his god, and threw out the merchandise that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the ship.  But Jonah had gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay fast asleep.
 6 So the captain of the ship came to him, and said to him, "What do you mean, O sleeper?  Get up, call on your God, if perhaps God will think about us, so we don't die."
 7 And they all said to their co-workers, "Let's draw straws, so we'll know which of us is the cause of this evil that’s on us."  So they drew straws, and it came out Jonah.
 8 Then they said to him, "Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us, what is your occupation?  And where do you come from?  What is your country?  And of what people are you?"
 9 And he said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land."
 10 Then the men were very afraid, and said to him, "Why have you done this?"  For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
 11 Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, so the sea will be calm to us?"  For the sea rolled, and was tempestuous.
 12 And he said to them, "Take me up, and throw me into the sea, so the sea shall be calm for you, because I know that because of me this great tempest is on you."
 13 But the men rowed hard to bring it to land, but they couldn't, for the sea rolled, and was tempestuous against them.
 14 So they shouted to the Lord, "We beg of you, O Lord, we beg of you, don't let us die for this man's life, and don't lay on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you."
 15 So they took up Jonah, and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.
 16 Then the men feared the Lord very much, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows.
 17 Now the Lord had prepared a whale to swallow Jonah.  And Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights.

___Jonah chapter 2
 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,
 2 And said, "I cried because of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me, out of the belly of hell I cried, and you heard my voice.
 3 For you threw me into the deep, in the middle of the seas, and the floods surrounded me, all your billows and your waves passed over me.
 4 Then I said, I am thrown out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
 5 The waters surrounded me, even to the soul, the depth closed around me, the weeds were wrapped around my head.
 6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, the earth with her bars was around me forever, yet you've brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
 7 When my soul fainted inside me I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
 8 Those who observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
 9 But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that which I have vowed.  Salvation is of the Lord."
 10 And the Lord spoke to the whale, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.

___Jonah chapter 3
 1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,
 2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that large city, and preach to it the preaching that I tell you."
 3 So Jonah got up, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.  Now Nineveh was a very large city of three-day's journey.
 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he shouted, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."
 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
 6 For word came to the king of Nineveh, and he got up from his throne, and he laid his robe off of him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything, let them not eat, nor drink water,
 8 But let man and animal be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God, yes, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so we don't die?"
 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God changed his mind about evil that he had said that he would do to them, and he didn't do it.

___Jonah chapter 4
 1 But it very much displeased Jonah, and he was very angry.
 2 And he prayed to the Lord, and said, "I pray you, O Lord, wasn't this what I said when I was yet in my country?  Therefore I fled before to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and change your mind about the evil.
 3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beg of you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."
 4 Then the Lord said, "Are you doing well to be angry?"
 5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and made himself a booth there, and sat under it in the shadow, 'til he could see what would become of the city.
 6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, so it would be a shadow over his head, to give him relief from his grief.  So Jonah was very glad about the gourd.
 7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it struck the gourd so that it dried up.
 8 And when the sun arose, God prepared a strong east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah's head, and he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."
 9 And God said to Jonah, "Are you doing well to be angry about the gourd?"  And he said, "I do well to be angry, even until death."
 10 Then the Lord said, "You've had pity on the gourd, for which you haven't labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night, and died in a night,
 11 And shouldn't I spare Nineveh, that large city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand people that can't tell the difference between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?"

Chapter 2

God had something for Jonah to do.  He wanted Jonah to go preach to the city of Nineveh.  

But Jonah didn't think that was such a good idea.  He preferred not to go preach to Nineveh.  

So Jonah didn't go to there, he got aboard a ship.  

But God sent a bad storm.  

The sailors were afraid for their lives.  

They found out that Jonah was running away from the Lord's assignment.  

They asked Jonah what they should do with him.  

He said, “Throw me overboard.”

They were reluctant to do that, but they finally did throw Jonah overboard.  

If you happen to go over the side of the ship when the ship is at sea, and into the water, it can be hazardous to your health.  

Even if you're a good swimmer, there is still the serious danger of drowning, and which way is land?  And how far is it to land?  And are those waters shark infested?  

But instead of drowning, or being eaten by sharks, God had prepared a large fish.  In the King James Version, it says, “a great fish.”  But in the New Testament, Jesus called it a whale.  

So, the whale swallowed Jonah.

But Jonah didn't like it in the belly of the whale.  Not his kind of place.  

In preparing the whale, I guess the Lord arranged that the whale would not digest Jonah.  

Jonah referred to that place as, “the belly of hell.”  

It wasn't really hell, but it seemed to Jonah like hell.  

So Jonah prayed to God out of what Jonah called the belly of hell.  

Jonah had a change of heart.  He changed his mind, and decided that yes, he could, after all, preach to Nineveh.  

God spoke to the whale, and it spat Jonah out on dry land.  

God spoke again to Jonah, and told him to preach to Nineveh.  

My guess is that before immediately going to Nineveh, first thing that had to be done is try to get that bad smell off of him, that came from the whale's belly.    

So Jonah went to Nineveh and preached, and they repented.  They did an about face, to use a military term.  I mean, they turned around, and they went in the opposite direction.  

So, Jonah was a good choice by God to preach to Nineveh.  Jonah, of course, could have saved himself some trouble by being willing sooner.  

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.  For word came to the king of Nineveh, and he got up from his throne, and he laid his robe off of him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.   

And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything, let them not eat, nor drink water, But let man and animal be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God, yes, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.  

Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so we don't die?"  And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God changed his mind about evil that he had said that he would do to them, and he didn't do it.  

There is a lesson to be learned here.  If God tells you to do something, just do it, and skip the part about the inside of a whale.  

Now someone might say, “Well, I can solve that problem, I'll just not get aboard ships.”  

Wrong thing to say.  Avoiding ships doesn't keep you away from whales.  God has whales all over.  

Mine shafts.  Sink holes.  A sink hole opened up under a man's house several years ago, and he and his bed went down into the sink hole.  

They could hear his shouts for help, but no one could do anything to save him.  

There is no limit to God's ability to punish people once he takes a notion to do so.  

What you want to do is not provoke God to take a notion to punish you, by fearing God and doing the things that please Him, by praying every day, and getting the Word of God, the Bible.  

By building your house on the foundation of what Jesus has said.  

In my youth, a good elder brother, Bill Severn, advised me to read a chapter in the Bible every day.  He said, “Fred, if you don't read at least a chapter in the day in the Bible, you'll fall on your face as a Christian.”

I thought that was good advice, and have tried to do so.  

But I discovered this--if I happen to be in a hurry, I can get a chapter from the Psalms, some of which are only six verses.  

But if I was traveling, I've missed a few days, with my large Bible packed away somewhere in the baggage.    

Lately, I don't read in the Bible so much as listen to the Bible being read on compact disks.