Jonah is Called to Go to Nineveh

Now this message from the Lord came to Amittai’s son Jonah:

“Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city! Then cry out in protest against it, because their evil has come to my attention.”

Jonah Runs from God’s Call

But Jonah got up and fled from the Lord to Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, secured passage on a ship bound for Tarshish, paid the fare, and boarded, intending to go with the mariners to Tarshish to escape from the Lord.

At this point the mariners became terrified, and each man cried out to his gods. They began to throw the cargo into the sea in order to lighten the vessel. But Jonah had gone down into the vessel’s hold, had lain down, and was fast asleep.

So the captain approached him, and told him, “What are you doing asleep? Get up! Call on your gods! Maybe your god will think about us so we won’t die!”

Meanwhile, each crewman told another, “Come on! Let’s cast lots to find out whose fault it is that we’re in this trouble.” So they cast lots, and the lot indicated Jonah!

“I’m a Hebrew,” he replied, “and I’m afraid of the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea—along with the dry land!”

In mounting terror, the men asked him, “What have you done?” The men were aware that he was fleeing from the Lord, because he had admitted this to them.

Jonah is Thrown Overboard

Because the sea was growing more and more stormy, they asked him, “What do we have to do to you so the sea will calm down for us?”

Jonah told them, “Pick me up and toss me into the sea. Then the sea will calm down for you, because I know that it’s my fault that this mighty storm has come upon you.”

Even so, the crewmen rowed hard to bring the ship toward dry land, but they were unsuccessful, because the sea was growing more and more stormy.

At last they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us perish because of this man’s life, and do not hold us responsible for innocent blood, because you, Lord, have done what pleased you.”

Then the men feared the Lord greatly, offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows.

He said: “I called out to the Lord from the midst of affliction directed at me, and he answered me. From the depths of death I cried out for help; and you heard my cry.

You cast me into the deep— into the heart of the sea. Flood waters engulfed me. All your breakers and your waves swirled over me.

So I told myself, ‘I have been driven away from you. How will I again gaze on your holy Temple?’

Flood waters encompassed me, the deep surrounded me while seaweed wrapped around my head.

I sank to the roots of the mountains; the earth’s prison bars closed around me forever. Yet you resurrect the dead from the Pit, Lord my God!

“As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you in your holy Temple.

But as for me, with a voice of thanksgiving I will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance is the Lord’s!”

The Lord Again Calls Jonah to Go to Nineveh

This message from the Lord came to Jonah a second time:

“Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”

As Jonah started into the city on the first day’s journey, he proclaimed the message, “40 days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!”

When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, removed his royal garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in ashes.

Then he had this proclamation published throughout Nineveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles: No man or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything, graze, or drink water.