nd cried saying: There shall not pass forty days but Nineveh
shall be overthrown.

And the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed fasting,
and arrayed themselves in sackcloth, as well the great as the small of
them.

And the tidings came unto the king of Nineveh, which arose out
of his seat, and did his apparel off and put on sackcloth, and sat him
down in ashes. And it was cried and commanded in Nineveh by the
authority of the king and of his lords saying: see that neither man or
beast, ox or sheep taste ought at all, and that they neither feed or
drink water.

And they put on sackcloth both man and beast, and cried unto
God mightily, and turned every man his wicked way, and from doing wrong
in which they were accustomed, saying: who can tell whether God will
turn and repent, and cease from his fierce wrath, that we perish not?
And when God saw their works, how they turned from their wicked ways,
he repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them, and did it
not.

The fourth Chapter.

Wherefore Jonas was sore discontent and angry. And he prayed
unto the Lord and said: O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet
in my country? And therefore I hasted rather to flee to Tharsis: for I
knew well enough that thou wast a merciful god, full of compassion,
long ere thou be angry and of great mercy and repentest when thou art
come to take punishment. Now therefore take my life from me, for I had
lever die than live. And the Lord said unto Jonas, art thou so angry?

And Jonas gat him out of the city and sat him down on the east
side thereof, and made him there a booth and sat thereunder in the
shadow, till he might see what should chance unto the city.

And the Lord prepared as it were a wild vine which sprang up
over Jonas, that he might have shadow over his head, to deliver him out
of his pain. And Jonas was exceeding glad of the wild vine.

And the Lord ordained a worm against the spring of the morrow
morning which smote the wild vine that it withered away. And as soon
as the sun was up, God prepared a fervent east wind: so that the sun
beat over the head of Jonas, that he fainted again and wished unto his
soul that he might die, and said, it is better for me to die than to
live.

And God said unto Jonas, art thou so angry for thy wild vine?
And he said, I am angry a good, even on to the death. And the Lord
said, thou hast compassion on a wild vine, whereon thou bestowedest no
labour nor made