Jonah 1

Jonah’s Flight

¹The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ^{a 2}“Get up! ^b Go to the great city ^c of Nineveh ^d and preach against it ^e because their evil ^f has come up before me.” ^{g 3}Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish ^h from the Lord’s presence. ⁱ He went down ^j to Joppa ^k and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.

⁴But the Lord threw ^l a great wind onto the sea, ^m and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. ⁵The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. ⁿ They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. ^o Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep. ^p

⁶The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god. ^q,^r Maybe this god will consider us, ^s and we won’t perish.”

⁷“Come on! ” the sailors said to each other. “Let’s cast lots. ^t Then we’ll know who is to blame for this trouble we’re in.” So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah. ^{u 8}Then they said to him, “Tell us who is to blame for this trouble we’re in. ^v What is your business, ^w and where are you from? What is your country, and what people are you from? ”

⁹He answered them, “I’m a Hebrew. ^x I worship ^y the Lord, ^z the God of the heavens, ^aa who made the sea ^ab and the dry land.”

¹⁰Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, “What have you done? ” The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord’s presence ^ac because he had told them. ¹¹So they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us? ” For the sea was getting worse and worse.

¹²He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it will calm down for you, for I know that I’m to blame ^ad for this great storm that is against you.” ¹³Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn’t because the sea was raging against them more and more.

¹⁴So they called out to the Lord, ^ae “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.” ^{af 15}Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. ^{ag 16}The men were seized by great fear of the Lord, ^ah and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. ^ai

¹⁷The Lord appointed a great fish ^aj to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. ^ak