unfoldingWord® Translation Questions
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| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And the word of Yahweh came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, | There was a man named Jonah, the son of Amittai. It happened {one day} that Yahweh spoke to him. This is what Yahweh said: |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| “Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, because their evil has risen up before my face.” | “I have seen that the people of Nineveh are continually doing things that are very evil. Therefore, get moving. Go to Nineveh, that huge capital city {of Assyria}, and proclaim to the people there that I am planning to punish them for their evil actions.” |
Yahweh told Jonah to get up and go to Nineveh and speak out against it.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| But Jonah got up to run away to Tarshish from before the face of Yahweh. And he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from before the face of Yahweh. | So Jonah went, {but in the opposite direction,} towards the {far-away} city of Tarshish, thinking that he could get away from Yahweh there. He went down to {the port at} the city of Joppa and found a ship that was about to go to Tarshish. The captain of the ship asked him for money, and he gave it to him. Then he went down into the ship in order to go with the crew of the ship to Tarshish, in order to get away from Yahweh. |
Jonah got up to run away to Tarshish from before the face of Yahweh.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea and a great storm happened on the sea, so that the ship was thinking to be broken apart. | But Yahweh caused a strong wind to blow over the sea, and such an enormous storm happened that the waves were about to break the ship apart. |
Yahweh sent a great wind and a great storm on the sea so that the ship was near to being broken up.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then the sailors were frightened, and they cried out, a man to his god. And they threw the things that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it from upon them. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship, and had lain down, and was deeply asleep. | The sailors were frightened and each one prayed loudly to the god that he worshiped {for that god to save them from the storm}. They even threw the cargo from the ship into the sea in order to make the ship lighter, so that it would not so easily {take on water and} sink. While all of this was going on, Jonah was down inside the ship, lying down and sleeping soundly! |
The sailors became very afraid and each cried out to his own god.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then the captain of the crew came to him and said to him, “What to you, sleeping? Get up! Cry out to your god! Maybe that god will notice us, and we will not perish.” | Then the captain of the crew went down to where Jonah was {sleeping}. He {wakened Jonah and} said to him, “Something must be wrong with you, to sleep during a storm like this! Get up! Pray earnestly to the god that you worship! Perhaps that god will think about us and save us.” |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then they said, a man to his friend, “Come, and let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this evil is happening to us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. | After a while the sailors started to say to each other, “We need to cast lots, to determine who has caused this terrible thing to happen to us!” They all agreed, so they cast lots, and the lot indicated Jonah. |
The sailors cast lots to determine the cause of the evil and the lot indicated Jonah.
The result was that the lot indicated that Jonah was the cause of the evil they were experiencing.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then they said to him, “Please tell us on whose account this evil is happening to us. What is your occupation, and where do you come from? What is your country, and from which people are you?” | So the sailors said these things to Jonah: “You must tell us who has caused this terrible thing to happen to us. What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What country are you from? What group of people do you belong to?” |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.” | Jonah answered them, “I am a Hebrew. I worship Yahweh, the {One True} God who lives in heaven. He is the one who made both the sea and the land.” |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then the men feared a great fear, and they said to him, “What is this that you have done?” For the men knew that he was running away from before the face of Yahweh, because he had told them. | Jonah also told the sailors that he was trying to get away from Yahweh {in order to avoid doing something that Yahweh had told him to do}. So now{, when they learned that Yahweh was the one controlling the sea,} they were terrified. One of the sailors said to Jonah, “You have done a terrible thing! {Now we are all about to die because of you!}” |
The sailors knew that Jonah was running away from before the face of Yahweh because Jonah told them.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down from upon us?” For the sea was progressing and storming. | The storm continued to become worse, and the waves continued to become bigger. So one of the sailors asked Jonah, “What should we do to you so that the sea might calm down and stop threatening us?” |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And he said to them, “Lift me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will calm down from upon you, for I know that this great storm is upon you because of me.” | Jonah told them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. If you do that, the sea will calm down and stop threatening you. This will work because I am certain that this terrible storm happened to you because I did not do what Yahweh told me to do.” |
Jonah told the men to lift him up and throw him into the sea.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| But the men rowed hard to return themselves to the land, but they could not, because the sea was progressing and storming over them. | But the sailors {did not want to do that. Instead, they} tried hard to row the ship back to the land. But they could not do it because the waves became even bigger and stronger against them. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| So they cried out to Yahweh and said, “Ah! Yahweh, please do not let us perish on account of the life of this man, and do not put innocent blood upon us, because you, Yahweh, have done just as you desired.” | Finally, all of the sailors prayed to Yahweh, “O Yahweh, you are the one controlling all of these things {that have happened to us, including this storm and the lot that we cast}. Therefore we beg you, Yahweh, please do not let us die because of this man. No, do not kill us for killing someone who has done nothing against us.” |
The sailors asked Yahweh to not let them perish on account of the life of Jonah and to not hold them guilty for Jonah’s death.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| So they lifted up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. | Then they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea. Immediately, the sea became calm. |
When the sailors threw Jonah into the sea, the sea stopped raging.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then the men feared Yahweh {with} great fear, and they sacrificed a sacrifice to Yahweh and vowed vows. | When that happened, the sailors became greatly awed {at how powerful Yahweh was}. They offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and solemnly promised to worship him. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Now Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the abdomen of the fish three days and three nights. | Meanwhile, Yahweh caused a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. |
Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the abdomen of the fish three days and three nights.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And Jonah prayed to Yahweh his God from the abdomen of the fish. | While he was inside the fish, Jonah prayed to Yahweh, the God whom he worshiped. |
Jonah cried out to Yahweh in prayer because he was distressed.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And he said, “I cried out to Yahweh from my distress, and he answered me. From the belly of Sheol I cried out; you heard my voice. | This is what he said: “When I was deeply distressed, I prayed to Yahweh {to rescue me}, and he did. Even though I was in the belly {of a fish} where I thought I would die, yet {even there} you heard my voice and listened to me {when I begged for you to help me}. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Now you had cast me {to} the deep, into the heart of the seas, and a current surrounded me; all your billows and your waves passed over me. | You had thrown me into the deep water, into the middle of the sea where the currents swirled around me. All of those terrible waves that you made passed above me. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| But I, I said, ‘I have been driven out from before your eyes; yet I might again look toward the temple of your holiness.’ | But as for me, I thought, ‘You have thrown me away; you do not care even to look at me; even so I may still see your holy temple again.’ |
Jonah hoped that he might be able to look toward Yahweh’s holy temple again.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Water had closed around me even as far as life, the deep was surrounding me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. | Water was all around me, close to ending my life; {yes,} deep water surrounded me; seaweed became wrapped around my head. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I had gone down to the bases of the mountains. The earth, its bars {were} around me forever, but you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh, my God! | I went down as far as the place where the mountains start rising from the bottom of the sea; I felt as though the earth was a prison with no possible way for me to escape. But you, Yahweh God, whom I worship, rescued me from going down to the place of the dead. |
Yahweh brought Jonah’s life up from the pit.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| When my life fainted upon me, I remembered Yahweh and my prayer came to you, to the temple of your holiness. | When I was almost dead, I thought about you, Yahweh{, to ask you for help}. And from your holy place where you live, you accepted my prayer. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Those who give attention to vanities of worthlessness forsake their covenant faithfulness. | Those who worship worthless idols reject you, the one who would always be faithful to them. |
Jonah said those who give attention to empty vanities forsake their covenant faithfulness.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| But I, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving; I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh!” | But I {will not do that. Rather}, I will give a sacrifice to you as I loudly thank you. I will do what I have solemnly promised {you} that I would do. Yahweh, you are the only One True God who saves people.” |
Jonah said he would sacrifice to Yahweh with a voice of thanksgiving and fulfill what he had vowed.
Jonah said that salvation belongs to Yahweh.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And Yahweh spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land. | Then Yahweh commanded the {huge} fish {to spew out Jonah}, and the fish spewed out Jonah onto the land. |
Yahweh spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then the word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time, saying, | Then Yahweh spoke to Jonah again. This is what Yahweh said: |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| “Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation that I tell to you.” | “Get moving! Go to Nineveh, the large capital city {of Assyria}, and preach to the people who live there the message that I tell you to preach to them.” |
Yahweh commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and speak Yahweh’s message.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was a city great to God, a journey of three days. | This time, Jonah got moving and went to Nineveh, just as Yahweh had told him to do. Now Nineveh was an extremely large city. It was so large that a person had to walk for three days {to go completely through it}. |
Jonah obeyed Yahweh and went to Nineveh.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| So Jonah began to go into the city a journey of one day, and he called out and said, “Still 40 days, then Nineveh will be overthrown.” | When Jonah arrived, he began walking through the city for about one day. Then he proclaimed to the people in the city, “Forty days from now, God will destroy Nineveh!” |
Jonah said that in 40 days Nineveh would be overthrown.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And the men of Nineveh believed God. And they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. | The people of Nineveh believed the message from God {that Jonah proclaimed}. They decided that everyone should fast and wear coarse cloth on their bodies {in order to show that they were sorry for the evil things that they had been doing}. So everyone in the city did that, from the most important people to the least important people. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he rose up from his throne, and he took off his robe from being on him, and he covered himself {with} sackcloth and sat down on the ash heap. | When the king of Nineveh heard about the message {that Jonah was preaching}, he got up from his throne. He took off his royal robes, put on coarse cloth instead, and sat down on a heap of cold ashes. {He did all this to show that he also was sorry for the evil actions that he had been doing.} |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And he proclaimed and spoke within Nineveh from a decree of the king and his nobles, saying: “The person and the animal, the herd and the flock, must not taste anything; they must not graze, and they must not drink water. | Then he sent messengers to proclaim to the people in Nineveh: “The king and his officials have decreed that no person or animal may taste any food nor drink any water. Even the cows and the sheep may not graze. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| But let the man and the beast be covered {with} sackcloth, and they must cry out to God with strength, and each man must turn back from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. | Every person and every {domestic} animal must wear coarse cloth on their bodies. Everyone must pray fervently to God. Also, everyone must stop doing the evil things that they have been doing and the violent things that they have been doing {to other people}. |
The Ninevites believed God, fasted, and put on sackcloth. The king of Nineveh made a decree which said that no person or animal should eat or drink water and that each person and animal must be covered with sackcloth and that each person should cry out to God and stop doing evil deeds including violent acts.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Who knows? This god might turn back and have compassion and relent from the burning of his nose so that we will not perish.” | If everyone does those things, it is possible that this god will change his mind and be merciful to us. He may relent from being so angry with us, with the result that we will live.” |
The king of Nineveh hoped that God would turn back from his anger and have compassion on them so that the people of Nineveh would not perish.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And God saw their deeds, that they turned away from their evil ways. And God relented in regard to the evil that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do {it}. | So the people did those things and stopped doing the evil actions that they had been doing. God saw all of this. So God had mercy on them and did not destroy them as he had said he would do. {Even though he had said that,} he did not do it. |
God saw their deeds, that they turned away from their evil ways. And God relented in regard to the evil that he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| But it made evil to Jonah a great evil, and it burned to him. | For Jonah, it was wrong, terribly wrong{, that God did not destroy Nineveh}. He became very angry about it. |
Jonah was angry because it seemed like a great evil to Jonah that Yahweh had mercy on the Ninevites and did not punish them.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| So he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! Yahweh, was this not my word while I was in my country? Because of this I acted beforehand to flee to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, long of nostrils and abundant in covenant faithfulness, and one who relents from evil. | He prayed to Yahweh, “See! Yahweh, This is exactly what I said would happen even before I left home! I knew that you are a God who acts very kindly and compassionately {toward all people}. You do not quickly become angry {with people who act in evil ways}. You love people very much, and you prefer to be merciful to people rather than to punish them. Therefore, I ran away to go to Tarshish in order to stop this very thing from happening. |
Jonah said that he had tried to flee to Tarshish because he knew that Yahweh was a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in covenant faithfulness, and one who relents from evil.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| So now, Yahweh, I beg you, take my life from me, for my death is better than my life.” | So now, Yahweh, please kill me, because I would rather die than continue to live {if you do not destroy Nineveh}.” |
Jonah asked Yahweh to take his life.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And Yahweh said, “Is it right that it burns to you?” | Yahweh replied, “It is wrong for you to be angry {that I did not destroy Nineveh}.” |
Yahweh asked Jonah if it was right for Jonah to be angry.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then Jonah went out from the city and sat down facing the city from the east. And there he made a shelter for himself, and he sat under it in the shade until he might see what would be within the city. | Then Jonah left the city {of Nineveh} and sat down {a short distance away} on the east side of the city. There he made a small shelter to shade himself {from the sun}. He stayed under the shelter and waited to see what would happen to the city. |
Jonah wanted to see what would happen to the city of Nineveh.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then Yahweh God appointed a plant and caused it to grow up from over Jonah to be a shade over his head in order to rescue him from his evil. And Jonah rejoiced with great rejoicing because of the plant. | Then Yahweh God caused a plant to grow up {very quickly} above Jonah to shade his head {from the sun}. Yahweh did that in order to remove the bad things that Jonah was experiencing. Jonah was very happy to have this plant {that shaded him from the sun}. |
Yahweh caused a plant to grow up over Jonah to be a shade for his head.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then God appointed a worm at the rising of the dawn of the next day; and it attacked the plant, and it withered. | Then, at dawn the next day, God caused a worm to chew the plant so much that the plant withered away. |
God appointed a worm at the rising of the dawn of the next day; and it attacked the plant, and it withered.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And as soon as the rising of the sun happened, then God appointed a hot east wind; and the sun beat on the head of Jonah, and he became faint. Then he asked his spirit to die and said, “My death is better than my life.” | Then, shortly after the sun had risen, God caused a hot wind to blow from the east. The sun shone very hotly on Jonah’s head, and Jonah began to feel faint. He wanted to die and he exclaimed, “It would be better for me to die than to continue living!” |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right that it burns to you about the plant?” And he said, “It is right that it burns to me, even as far as death.” | Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about what happened to the plant?” Jonah replied, “Yes, it is right for me to be angry! I am so angry that I want to die!” |
Yahweh asked Jonah if it was right for him to be angry about the plant.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Then Yahweh said, “You, you feel troubled about the plant, for which you did no work, nor did you make it grow; it came as a son of a night, and it perished as a son of a night. | Then Yahweh said to him, “As for you, you felt very sad about the plant when it died, even though you did not work to take care of it, nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up in one night, and it completely withered by the end of the next night. |
Jonah felt compassion for the plant that had withered and died.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| So I, should I not feel troubled about Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120, 000 people who do not know between their right hand to their left hand, and many animals?” | In the same way, but very much more, it is right for me to feel sad about {destroying} the huge city of Nineveh. There are more than 120, 000 people living there who do not know right from wrong. There are also many animals. {I created all of them, so} it is right for me to be concerned about them.” |
Yahweh felt compassion for the people and animals in Nineveh.