The Word Lord Teacher came into existence upon Jonah of Amittai, saying: |
Amittai here means uninstructed, ignorant, therefore Jonah was being set up for a trial. Because son, or seed, refer to a student, Jonah must have had a superior knowledge at this point, and his faith and knowledge must increase for the Divine Teaching to be carried out successfully. |
" Rise up proceed and walk to Nineveh, a great city, and preach to her on the grounds of their badness coming up in my presence." |
But Jonah rose up with haste to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord Teacher, and sank down to Joppa; and he encountered a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the price, and went down into it, to go with them into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord Teacher. |
Jonah paid the price for his ignorance to the Divine teaching here, but he was learning! |
But the Lord Teacher forced down a great spirit into the sea, and there came into existence a mighty whirlwind in the sea, so that the ship was calculated to be in danger of being crushed to pieces. |
Then the mariners were terrified, and pleaded every man toward to his god, and were then forced to cast out their possessions that are in the ship into the sea, to make them so insignificant. But Jonah was gone down into the side of the ship; and he lay asleep. |
And the great seaman approached him, and said to him: "Why are you in heavy sleep Arise, call upon your God, if so be that God will consider us, that we will not exterminated." |
Each man said to his neighbor: "Come, and let us cast down the lots that we may discover for whose cause this evil is upon us." So they cast down lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. |
They said to him: "hand down the message, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is your business? And where have you come from? What is your country? And of what sort of people are you?" |
And he said to them: "I am an Hebrew - One from beyond - I am from the Lord Teacher, the God of the Heavens,' whom I worship, He who fashioned the sea and the dry ground." |
Suddenly there was dread, and not the fear known by men, but massive, and they said to him: "How have you manufactured this?" For the men knew that he flew from the presence of the Lord Teacher, because he had expounded it to them. |
Then said they to him: "How shall we handle with you, that the sea may be quiet for us? Because of the sea we would walk into the storm. |
And Jonah said to them: "Lift me up, and cast me into the sea; so shall the sea be silent for you: for I know that for my sake this great whirlwind is upon you. |
The men dug in to return to the Way; but they could not: for the storm carried on - on account of the sea. |
Therefore they cried up to the Lord Teacher, and said: "We beseech you, Lord Teacher, please let us not be destroyed for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: For you, Lord Teacher, have accomplished that which delights you." |
So they lifted up Jonah, and cast him out into the sea: and the sea subsided from her raging. |
Through dread the men feared the Lord Teacher greatly, and made an offering of sacrifice up to the Lord Teacher, and made vows. |
Now the Lord Teacher numbered a great creation to overwhelm Jonah. And it came into existence that Jonah was in the womb of the creation 3 days and 3 nights. |
Then Jonah pleaded to the Lord Teacher his God out of the creation's womb. |
And said: "I cried by reason of my distress to the Lord Teacher, and through my weakness and suffering you heard me; out of the womb of hell I cried, and you heard my voice. |
For you had cast me into the heart of the seas and the rivers encircled me: all your breakers heaped against me on account of the Passover. |
Then I said - I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your Holy Temple. |
The waters engulfed me, even to the soul: the abyss surrounded me; the thorns were wrapped about my head. The mountain split. |
I descended to the extremities of the mountains; the Way with her prisons, lock me in eternally: yet you have ascended my life from the grave of corruption, Lord Teacher God. |
When my soul grew feeble within me I remembered my Lord Teacher, and my prayer came into your Holy Temple. |
They that observe worthless and deceiving vanities forsake their own mercy. |
But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving, I will repay in kind that which I have vowed - Salvation is of the Lord Teacher." |
And the Lord Teacher ordered the creation, and it cast out Jonah upon the dry ground. |
And the Word of the Lord Teacher came into existence the 2nd time to Jonah, saying: |
Arise, proceed into Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim the preaching that I will teach you." |
So Jonah arose, and walked into Nineveh, according to the instructions of the Lord Teacher. Now Nineveh was a great city of God 3 days' journey. |
And having risen, Jonah unwillingly began to enter into the city - 1 day's walking - and he cried, and said: "Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overturned." |
The men of Nineveh believed God, and preached a fast, and dressed in Hessian sacking, from the greatest to the least of them. |
For the Word struck and touched the king of Nineveh, and he arose from the authority of his throne, and he passed over his rule, and he was covered with Hessian sacking, and sat in worthlessness. |
And he preached and announced through Nineveh by the decision of the king and those of high standing, saying: "Let neither man nor cattle, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not pasture, nor drink water. |
Let man and cattle be covered with Hessian sacking, and read forcibly upon God: let them turn every man from his evil Way, and from the injustice that is in their hands. |
Who can discern if God will return and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not?" |
And God considered their works and that they turned from their evil Way; and God changed His mind of the evil, that he had said that he would do to them; and he did not. |
But it distresssed Jonah greatly, and he was very angry. |
And he prayed up to the Lord Teacher, and said: "Lord Teacher, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my Way? Therefore I fled before into Tarshish - for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and changing of mind are you of the evil. |
Therefore now, Lord Teacher, take I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. |
Then said the Lord Teacher to Jonah: "You do well to be angry?" |
So Jonah went out of the city, and reclined opposite to the city, and there made him a Tabernacle, and reclined under its shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. |
And God, the Lord Teacher ordained a plant, and it excelled over Jonah's head, that it might be a shadow over his head, to recover him from his misery. So Jonah was exceedingly glad of the plant. |
But God appointed a worm when dawn rose the next day, to strike the plant that it dried up. |
And it came about, when the sun came up, that God appointed a scorching east spirit; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he appeared disfigured, and begged to die, and said: "better for me to die than to live." |
And God said to Jonah: "You do well to be sorrowful for the plant?" And he said: "I do well to be distressed, even to death." |
Then said the Lord Teacher: "You have had pity on the plant, for the which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and died in a night. |
And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than 120,000 men that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and many cattle?" |
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Royden John Elson
Roy Elson