1 The Lord sent this message to Jonah, the son of Amittai:

² “Go to the great city of Nineveh, and give them this announcement from the Lord: ‘I am going to destroy you, for your wickedness rises before me; it smells to highest heaven.’”

³ But Jonah was afraid to go and ran away from the Lord. He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket, went on board, and climbed down into the dark hold of the ship to hide there from the Lord.

⁴ But as the ship was sailing along, suddenly the Lord flung a terrific wind over the sea, causing a great storm that threatened to send them to the bottom. ⁵ Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. And all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold.

⁶ So the captain went down after him. “What do you mean,” he roared, “sleeping at a time like this? Get up and cry to your god, and see if he will have mercy on us and save us!”

⁷ Then the crew decided to draw straws to see which of them had offended the gods and caused this terrible storm; and Jonah drew the short one.

⁸ “What have you done,” they asked, “to bring this awful storm upon us? Who are you? What is your work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”

^9-10 And he said, “I am a Jew;^[a] I worship Jehovah, the God of heaven, who made the earth and sea.” Then he told them he was running away from the Lord.

The men were terribly frightened when they heard this. “Oh, why did you do it?” they shouted. ¹¹ “What should we do to you to stop the storm?” For it was getting worse and worse.

¹² “Throw me out into the sea,” he said, “and it will become calm again. For I know this terrible storm has come because of me.”

¹³ They tried harder to row the boat ashore, but couldn’t make it. The storm was too fierce to fight against. ¹⁴ Then they shouted out a prayer to Jehovah, Jonah’s God. “O Jehovah,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin, and don’t hold us responsible for his death, for it is not our fault—you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

¹⁵ Then they picked up Jonah and threw him overboard into the raging sea—and the storm stopped!

¹⁶ The men stood there in awe before Jehovah, and they sacrificed to him and vowed to serve him.

¹⁷ Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish:

² “In my great trouble I cried to the Lord and he answered me; from the depths of death I called, and Lord, you heard me! ³ You threw me into the ocean depths; I sank down into the floods of waters and was covered by your wild and stormy waves. ⁴ Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have rejected me and cast me away. How shall I ever again see your holy Temple?’

⁵ “I sank beneath the waves, and death was very near. The waters closed above me; the seaweed wrapped itself around my head. ⁶ I went down to the bottoms of the mountains that rise from the ocean floor. I was locked out of life and imprisoned in the land of death. But, O Lord my God, you have snatched me from the yawning jaws of death!

⁷ “When I had lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord. And my earnest prayer went to you in your holy Temple. ⁸ (Those who worship false gods have turned their backs on all the mercies waiting for them from the Lord!)

⁹ “I will never worship anyone but you! For how can I thank you enough for all you have done? I will surely fulfill my promises. For my deliverance comes from the Lord alone.”

¹⁰ And the Lord ordered the fish to spit up Jonah on the beach, and it did.