Jonah 1:3-17
1:3 Instead, Jonah immediately
headed off to Tarshish
to escape
from the commission of the
Lord.
He traveled
to Joppa
and found a merchant ship heading
to Tarshish.
So he paid the fare
and went aboard
it to go with them
to Tarshish
far away from the
Lord.
1:4 But
the
Lord hurled
a powerful
wind on the sea. Such a violent
tempest arose on the sea that
the ship threatened to break up!
1:5 The sailors were so afraid that each cried out
to his own god
and they flung
the ship’s cargo
overboard
to make the ship lighter.
Jonah, meanwhile,
had gone down
into the hold
below deck,
had lain down, and was sound asleep.
1:6 The ship’s captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep?
Get up! Cry out
to your god! Perhaps your god
might take notice of us
so that we might not die!”
1:7 The sailors said to one another,
“Come on, let’s cast lots
to find out
whose fault it is that this disaster has overtaken us.
” So they cast lots, and Jonah was singled out.
1:8 They said to him, “Tell us, whose fault is it that this disaster has overtaken us?
What’s your occupation? Where do you come from? What’s your country? And who are your people?”
1:9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew! And I worship
the
Lord,
the God of heaven,
who made the sea and the dry land.”
1:10 Hearing this,
the men became even more afraid
and said to him, “What have you done?” (The men said this because they knew that he was trying to escape
from the
Lord, because he had previously told them.
)
1:11 Because the storm was growing worse and worse,
they said to him, “What should we do to you to make
the sea calm down
for us?”
1:12 He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea to make the sea quiet down,
because I know it’s my fault you are in this severe storm.”
1:13 Instead, they tried to row
back to land,
but they were not able to do so
because the storm kept growing worse and worse.
1:14 So they cried out to the
Lord, “Oh, please,
Lord, don’t let us die on account of this man! Don’t hold us guilty of shedding innocent blood.
After all, you,
Lord, have done just as you pleased.”
1:15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging.
1:16 The men feared the
Lord greatly,
and earnestly vowed
to offer lavish sacrifices
to the Lord.
Jonah Prays
(2:1)
1:17 The Lord sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.