Study Desk

I will plant my people on the land I gave them, and they will not be pulled up again." The Lord your God has spoken.

The sailors were terrified and cried out for help, each one to his own god. Then, in order to lessen the danger, they threw the cargo overboard. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone below and was lying in the ship's hold, sound asleep.

The captain found him there and said to him, "What are you doing asleep? Get up and pray to your god for help. Maybe he will feel sorry for us and spare our lives."

"I am a Hebrew," Jonah answered. "I worship the Lord , the God of heaven, who made land and sea."

From deep inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God:

I went down to the very roots of the mountains, into the land whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, brought me back from the depths alive.

All persons and animals must wear sackcloth. Everyone must pray earnestly to God and must give up their wicked behavior and their evil actions.

Perhaps God will change his mind; perhaps he will stop being angry, and we will not die!"

God saw what they did; he saw that they had given up their wicked behavior. So he changed his mind and did not punish them as he had said he would.

So he prayed, " Lord , didn't I say before I left home that this is just what you would do? That's why I did my best to run away to Spain! I knew that you are a loving and merciful God, always patient, always kind, and always ready to change your mind and not punish.

Then the Lord God made a plant grow up over Jonah to give him some shade, so that he would be more comfortable. Jonah was extremely pleased with the plant.

After the sun had risen, God sent a hot east wind, and Jonah was about to faint from the heat of the sun beating down on his head. So he wished he were dead. "I am better off dead than alive," he said.

But God said to him, "What right do you have to be angry about the plant?" Jonah replied, "I have every right to be angry—angry enough to die!"

All this will happen because the people of Israel have sinned and rebelled against God. Who is to blame for Israel's rebellion? Samaria, the capital city itself Who is guilty of idolatry in Judah? Jerusalem itself

The people preach at me and say, "Don't preach at us. Don't preach about all that. God is not going to disgrace us.

God will open the way for them and lead them out of exile. They will break out of the city gates and go free. Their king, the Lord himself, will lead them out.

Those who predict the future will be disgraced by their failure. They will all be humiliated because God does not answer them.

and their people will say, "Let us go up the hill of the Lord , to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen. For the Lord 's teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people."

Each nation worships and obeys its own god, but we will worship and obey the Lord our God forever and ever.

And you, Jerusalem, where God, like a shepherd from his lookout tower, watches over his people, will once again be the capital of the kingdom that was yours.