The Bible Story Part 193

And they said, everyone to his fellow, "Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us."

So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, "Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?"

And he said unto them, "I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the G.o.d of heaven, who hath made the sea and the dry land."

Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "What is this that thou hast done?"

For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said they to him, "What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm?" for the sea grew more and more tempestuous.

And he said to them, "Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you."

Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not: for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

Wherefore they cried to the Lord, and said, "We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee."

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[Ill.u.s.tration]

JAFFA, THE ANCIENT JOPPA, LOOKING FROM THE SEA.

From a photograph belonging to Dr. W. J. Moulton and used by his kind permission.

The city did not look just like this when Jonah came down to its wharfs to escape from the command of the Lord. But it was a great seaport, bustling with commerce in the days when the prophet found a "s.h.i.+p" (about as large probably as a good-sized modern fis.h.i.+ng boat) bound to Tars.h.i.+sh, and "paid his fare" and took pa.s.sage. Jaffa has the only inside harbor between Egypt and Mount Carmel. At best the s.p.a.ce for s.h.i.+pping is very small. The entrance is very narrow and in high seas very dangerous to enter.

[End ill.u.s.tration]

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So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows. And the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his G.o.d out of the fish's belly. And he said,--

"I called by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, And he answered me; Out of the belly of h.e.l.l cried I, And thou heardest my voice.

For thou didst cast me into the depth, in the heart of the seas, And the flood was round about me; All thy waves and thy billows pa.s.sed over me.

And I said, I am cast out from before thine eyes; Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

The waters compa.s.sed me about, even to the soul; The deep was round about me; The weeds were wrapped about my head.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The earth with her bars closed upon me for ever: Yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my G.o.d.

When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord: And my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

They that regard lying vanities Forsake their own mercy.

But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed.

Salvation is of the Lord."

And the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

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And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee."

So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

And the people of Nineveh believed G.o.d; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his n.o.bles.

A PROCLAMATION.

_Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed nor drink water: but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto G.o.d: yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knoweth whether G.o.d will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?_

And G.o.d saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and G.o.d repented of the evil, which he said he would do unto them; and he did it not.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

And he prayed to the Lord, and said, "I pray thee, O Lord, {171} was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to flee to Tars.h.i.+sh: for I knew that thou art a gracious G.o.d, and full of compa.s.sion, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live."

And the Lord said, "Doest thou well to be angry?" Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a shelter, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord G.o.d prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head. So Jonah was exceeding glad because of the gourd. But G.o.d prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it ate the gourd, that it withered.

And it came to pa.s.s, when the sun arose, that G.o.d prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

And G.o.d said to Jonah, "Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?"

And he said, "I do well to be angry even unto death."

And the Lord said, "Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city; wherein are more than sixty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?"

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SAMSON.

THE STORY OF A MAN WITH A STRONG BODY, WHO OFTEN YIELDED TO TEMPTATION, AND WHO FELL BECAUSE HE WAS NOT STRONG IN SPIRIT.

_How Samson Slew a Lion and Made a Riddle_.

(There was a man of the tribe of Dan, whose name was Manoah, and he and his wife had a son whose name was Samson, and Samson had strength of body above all other men of his time.)

And Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and told his father and his mother, and said, "I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to be my wife."

Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there not a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the Philistines?"

And Samson said to his father, "Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well."

But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel.

Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: {173} and, behold, a young lion roared against him. And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore him as he would have torn a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. And he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. And after a while he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. And he took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went, and he came to his father and mother, and gave unto them, and they did eat: but he told them not that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.

And his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. And it came to pa.s.s, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, "Let me now put forth a riddle for you: if ye can declare it unto me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of raiment: but if ye cannot declare it to me, then shall ye give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of raiment."

And they said to him, "Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it." And he said to them,--

"Out of the eater came forth food, And out of the strong came forth sweetness."