The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 590

2:2. And Jonas prayed to the Lord, his G.o.d, out of the belly of the fish.

2:3. And he said: I cried out of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me: I cried out of the belly of h.e.l.l, and thou hast heard my voice.

2:4. And thou hast cast me forth into the deep, in the heart of the sea, and a flood hast compa.s.sed me: all thy billows, and thy waves have pa.s.sed over me.

2:5. And I said: I am cast away out of the sight of thy eyes: but yet I shall see the holy temple again.

2:6. The waters compa.s.sed me about even to the soul: the deep hath closed me round about, the sea hath covered my head.

2:7. I went down to the lowest parts of the mountains: the bars of the earth have shut me up for ever: and thou wilt bring up my life from corruption, O Lord, my G.o.d.

2:8. When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord: that my prayer may come to thee, unto the holy temple.

2:9. They that in vain observe vanities, forsake their own mercy.

2:10. But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to thee: I will pay whatsoever I have vowed for my salvation to the Lord.

2:11. And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry land.

Spoke to the fish... G.o.d's speaking to the fish, was nothing else but his will, which all things obey.

Jonas Chapter 3

Jonas is sent again to preach in Ninive. Upon their fasting and repentance, G.o.d recalleth the sentence by which they were to be destroyed.

3:1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time saying:

3:2. Arise, and go to Ninive, the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee.

3:3. And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days' journey.

Of three days' journey... By the computation of some ancient historians, Ninive was about fifty miles round: so that to go through all the chief streets and public places was three days' journey.

3:4. And Jonas began to enter into the city one day's journey: and he cried and said: Yet forty days and Ninive shall be destroyed.

3:5. And the men of Ninive believed in G.o.d: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.

3:6. And the word came to the king of Ninive: and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed in sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

3:7. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen, nor sheep taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water.

3:8. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.

3:9. Who can tell if G.o.d will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?

3:10. And G.o.d saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and G.o.d had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.

Jonas Chapter 4

4:1. And Jonas was exceedingly troubled, and was angry:

Was exceedingly troubled, etc... His concern was lest he should pa.s.s for a false prophet; or rather, lest G.o.d's word, by this occasion, might come to be slighted and disbelieved.

4:2. 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 G.o.d, patient, and of much compa.s.sion, and easy to forgive evil.

4:3. And now, O Lord, I beseech thee take my life from me: for it is better for me to die than to live.

4:4. And the Lord said: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry?

4:5. 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.

4:6. And the Lord G.o.d 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.

The Lord G.o.d prepared an ivy... Hederam. In the Hebrew it is Kikajon, which some render a gourd: others a palmerist, or palma Christi.

4:7. But G.o.d prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following day: and it struck the ivy and it withered.

4:8. 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.

4:9. 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.

4:10. 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.

4:11. And shall I not spare Ninive, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons, that know how to distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts?

THE PROPHECY OF MICHEAS

MICHEAS, of Morasti, a little town in the tribe of JUDA, was contemporary with the prophet ISAIAS: whom he resembles both in his spirit and his style. He is different from the prophet MICHEAS mentioned in the third book of Kings, chap. 22. For that MICHEAS lived in the days of king ACHAB, one hundred and fifty years before the time of EZECHIAS, under whom this MICHEAS prophesied.

Micheas Chapter 1

Samaria for her sins shall be destroyed by the a.s.syrians; they shall also invade Juda and Jerusalem.

1:1. The word of the Lord, that came to Micheas, the Morasthite, in the days of Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda: which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

1:2. Hear, all ye people: and let the earth give ear, and all that is therein: and let the Lord G.o.d be a witness to you, the Lord from his holy temple.

1:3. For behold the Lord will come forth out of his place: and he will come down, and will tread upon the high places of the earth.

1:4. And the mountains shall be melted under him: and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as waters that run down a steep place.

1:5. For the wickedness of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the wickedness of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Juda? are they not Jerusalem?