ey turned away from their sins and fasted and sought the Lord,
from the greatest of them even to the least. The king of Nineveh arose
from his throne, and laid aside his royal robes, and covered himself
with sack-cloth and sat in ashes, as a sign of his sorrow. And the king
sent out a command to his people that they should fast, and seek the
Lord, and turn from sin.

[Illustration: _To shade Jonah from the sun_]

And God saw that the people of Nineveh were sorry for their wickedness,
and he forgave them, and did not destroy their city. But this made Jonah
very angry. He did not wish to have Nineveh spared, because it was the
enemy of his own land; and also he feared that men would call him a
false prophet when his word did not come to pass. And Jonah said to the
Lord:

"O Lord, I was sure that it would be thus, that thou wouldest spare the
city; and for that reason I tried to flee away; for I know that thou
wast a gracious God, full of pity, slow to anger, and rich in mercy.
Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to
live."

And Jonah went out of the city, and built a little hut on the east side
of it, and sat under its roof, to see whether God would keep the word
that he had spoken. Then the Lord caused a plant with thick leaves to
grow up, and to shade Jonah from the sun; and Jonah was glad, and sat
under its shadow. But a worm destroyed the plant; and the next day a hot
wind blew, and Jonah suffered from the heat; and again Jonah wished that
he might die. And the Lord said to Jonah:

"You were sorry to see the plant die, though you did not make it grow,
and though it came up in a night and died in a night. And should not I
have pity on Nineveh, that great city, where are more than a hundred
thousand little children, and also many cattle,--all helpless and
knowing nothing?"

And Jonah learned that men, and women, and little children, are all
precious in the sight of the Lord, even though they know not God.

THE STORY OF THE FIERY FURNACE

There was in the land of Judah a wicked king-named Jehoiakim, son of the
good Josiah. While Jehoiakim was ruling over the land of Judah,
Nebuchadnezzar, a great conqueror of the nations, came from Babylon with
his army of Chaldean soldiers. He took the city of Jerusalem, and made
Jehoiakim promise to submit to him as his master. And when he went back
to his own land he took with him all the gold and silver that he could
find in the Temple