God replied soothingly, “It will assure you a place in history.” So saying, the Lord blessed Leviathan, who sank sadly back to the depths of the sea; and, turning from the shore, the Light of Israel rolled like thunder across the valleys toward Golan. The night came to meet Him from the east, pouring down over the hills like smoke. In the cold night air God went to look for Jonah. Poor Jonah, he had not found peace after all. The lonely desert, so calm and quiet in the past, had given no rest to his thoughts. His mind went back over and over again to those days at home; he felt the wonder of the love-night, his heart shrank again with sickness for what followed. And he asked himself for the thousandth time how such things could be. Then he cried out against Judith for her cruelty; yet the next moment he forgave her. And these thoughts, climbing and falling wearily up and down through his head, kept him awake until long after the desert was asleep. In the morning, when he awoke, it was with regret; he tried to sleep a little longer, to keep his eyes closed, to keep from thinking again ... why wake at all? he wondered. There was nothing to wake to. Only the hot sun over the desert, only his heavy heart, which grew no lighter as the days went by. Why wake at all? God found him sitting wearily upon a rock, his head bowed between his hands. The Lord spoke, and the desert was silent. “Jonah,” said God in a voice like a great wave breaking, slowly, and with the peace of the sea, “Jonah, you have wept enough.” Jonah replied simply, “I have been waiting for You a long while, and I am very tired.” “I had not forgotten you,” said God; “I have been thinking.” And He added, “Now I have something for you to do.” Jonah remained seated without looking up. He seemed no longer to care what God had for him to do. “Arise, Jonah,” said God, “and go to Nineveh. Cry out against that great city for its sins.” But Jonah looked more dejected than ever. “What have I to do with Nineveh?” he asked. “Am I prophet to the Assyrians? I am a Jew. Do not mock me, Lord.” “I do not mock you,” said God gravely. “Go, then, and do My bidding.” And as Jonah did not reply, he added sadly, “Do you still doubt Me?”