The Lord said to Jonah son of Amittai,

Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish

The Lord said to Jonah a second time,

This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry.

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.

He issued a proclamation and said, “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water.

“Go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention.”

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

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

I thought I had been banished from your sight, that I would never again see your holy temple!

Then the Lord commanded the fish and it disgorged Jonah on dry land.

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.”

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!

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.

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.”

and said, “I called out to the Lord from my distress, and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried out for help, and you heard my prayer.

When my life was ebbing away, I called out to the Lord, and my prayer came to your holy temple.

“Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”

So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city – it required three days to walk through it!)

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes.