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?”

So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging.

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.”

Instead, they tried to row back to land, but they were not able to do so because the storm kept growing worse and worse.

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!

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.”

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.