eng_aiv Amundson Interpretive Version Jonah Jonah Jonah Jonah Jonah id=eng_aiv name=Amundson Interpretive Version (AIV) status=draft spec=USFM-USX 3.1.1 export=2026-11-02 char:add=translator-addition-italic char:wj=words-of-Jesus-as-received-unmapped note:f=footnotes para:r=parallel-passage-references para:d=psalm-superscriptions Jonah Flees from Yahweh (Nahum 1:1–15) And the word of YHWH came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying: “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before My face!” And Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish, away from the face of YHWH. And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish, and he paid its fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the face of YHWH. The Great Storm (Acts 27:13–26) And YHWH hurled a great wind toward the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, and the ship was thinking to be broken apart. And the sailors were afraid, and each man cried out to his god. And they threw the articles that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it from them. And Jonah had gone down into the recesses of the ship, and he had lain down and was deeply asleep. And the chief pilot came near to him and said to him: “How can you sleep? Stand up and call to your God! Perhaps your God will have consideration for us and we will not perish!” And they said, each man to his companion, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know by whom this evil is upon us!” And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. And they said to him, “Declare now to us, with regard to whom is this evil upon us? What is your occupation, and from where do you come? What is your land, and from which people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew and YHWH, God of the heavens, I fear, who made the sea and the dry land.” And the men feared with great fear, and they said to him: “What is this you have done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing away from the face of YHWH, because he had told them. Jonah Cast into the Sea And they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may become quiet around us?” For the sea was going on and raging. And he said to them, “Pick me up and cast me into the sea, and the sea will become quiet around you⁺. For I know that because of me this great tempest is upon you⁺.” And the men dug in1.13 or the men rowed hard to return to the land, and they were not able, for the sea was going on and raging against them. And they cried out to YHWH and said: “Ah, O YHWH, please do not let us perish for the soul of this man, and do not put upon us innocent blood. For You, O YHWH, have done as You pleased.” And they picked up Jonah, and they cast him into the sea, and the sea stood from its raging. And the men feared YHWH with great fear, and they offered a sacrifice to YHWH, and they vowed vows. And YHWH appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the bowels of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah’s Prayer And Jonah prayed to YHWH his God from the bowels of the fish, and he said: “I called out from the distress of mine to YHWH, and He answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried out— You heard my voice. And You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. And I said, ‘I have been driven out from before Your eyes; yet I will add to look toward the temple of Your holiness.’ The waters surrounded me up to the soul, the deep closed around me, the seaweed wrapped around my head. To the bases of the mountains I went down; the earth with her bars was behind me forever. And You brought up my life from the pit, O YHWH my God. At the fainting within me of my soul, I remembered YHWH; my prayer came in to You, to the temple of Your holiness. Those guarding vanities of worthlessness leave behind their loving devotion.2.8 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant. And I, with a voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You; what I have vowed, I will fulfill. Salvation is of YHWH.” And YHWH spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land. The Ninevites Repent (Matthew 12:38–42; Luke 11:29–32) And the word of YHWH came to Jonah a second time, saying: “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out to it the message that I am speaking to you.” And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of YHWH. And Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,3.3 Or was a great city to God a journey of three days. And Jonah began to come into the city, a walk of one day, and he called out and said: “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overturned!” And the people of Nineveh trusted in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. And this word reached to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and passed off his royal clothing from him, and he covered himself with sackcloth and sat upon the ashes. And he cried out and spoke in Nineveh: By the determination of the king and his nobles, saying: “The man and the beast, the herd and the flock, let them not taste anything, and let them not graze, and let them not drink water. And let them be covered with sackcloth, the man and the beast, and call out to God with strength; and each man must turn back from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn back and relent, and turn back from the burning of His anger, so that we should not perish!” And God saw their deeds, that they turned back from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that He had said to do to them, and He did not do it. Jonah’s Anger at Yahweh’s Compassion And it was evil to Jonah—a great evil—and he became hot at it. And he prayed to YHWH and said, “Ah, YHWH, was not this my word while I was in my own land? Upon thus, I acted beforehand to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving devotion, and one who relents from disaster. And now, O YHWH, take, please, my soul from me, for better is my death than my life.” And YHWH said, “Is it right for you to be hot?” And Jonah went out from the city, and sat on the east of the city; and he made for himself there a shelter, and he sat under it in the shade, until that he might see what would become of the city. And YHWH God appointed a qiqayon,4.6 a qiqayon is possibly a vine or castor oil plant; also in verses 7, 9, and 10 and He made it come up above Jonah to be shade over his head to deliver him from his trouble. And Jonah was glad about the plant with great joy. And God appointed a worm at the rising of the dawn on the next day, and it struck the qiqayon, and it withered. And it came to pass at the rising of the sun that God appointed a scorching wind from the east, and the sun beat on the head of Jonah. And he became faint, and he asked for his soul to die, and said, “Better is my death than my life!” And God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be hot about the qiqayon?” And he said, “It is right; it burns in me, even to death!” And YHWH said, “You have concern over the qiqayon, for which you have not toiled, and you have not made it grow; as a son of a night came to be, and as a son of a night it perished. And I, should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city, in which are more than twelve myriad people who do not know between their right hand to their left hand, and many animals?”