Jonah 1
Expanded Bible
God Calls and Jonah Runs
1 The ·Lord spoke his word [L word of the Lord came] to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh [C the capital of Assyria; Gen. 10:11, 12; 2 Kin. 19:36], and ·preach [cry out] against it, because ·I see the evil things they do [its wickedness has come to my attention/L up before me].”
3 But Jonah got up to run away from the Lord by going to Tarshish [C probably Tartessos in southwest Spain, the opposite direction from Nineveh]. He went to the city of Joppa, where he found a ship that was going to the city of Tarshish. Jonah paid for the trip and went aboard, planning to go to Tarshish to run away from the Lord.
4 But the Lord ·sent [hurled] a great wind on the sea, which made the sea so stormy that the ship was in danger of breaking apart. 5 The sailors were afraid, and each man cried to his own god. They began throwing the cargo from the ship into the sea to make the ship lighter.
But Jonah had gone down far inside the ship to lie down, and he fell fast asleep. 6 The captain of the ship came and said, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray to your god! Maybe your god will ·pay attention to [take notice of] us, and we won’t die!”
7 Then the men said to each other, “Let’s throw lots to see who caused these troubles to happen to us.”
When they threw lots, the lot ·showed that the trouble had happened because of [singled out; L fell upon] Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us, who caused our trouble? What is your job? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?”
9 Then Jonah said to them, “I am a Hebrew. I ·fear [worship] the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land [Gen. 1].”
10 The men were very afraid, and they asked Jonah, “What terrible thing did you do?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had told them.)
11 Since the wind and the waves of the sea were becoming much stronger, they said to him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12 Jonah said to them, “Pick me up, and throw me into the sea, and then it will calm down. I know it is my fault that this great storm has come on you.”
13 Instead, the men ·tried [L dug in] to row the ship back to the land, but they could not, because the sea was becoming more stormy.
Jonah’s Punishment
14 So the men cried to the Lord, “Lord, please don’t let us die because of this man’s life; please don’t ·think we are [hold us] guilty of ·killing an innocent person [L innocent blood]. Lord, you have caused all this to happen; you wanted it this way.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ·became calm [ceased raging]. 16 Then they began to fear the Lord very much; they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made ·promises [vows] to him.
17 The Lord ·caused [appointed; provided] a big fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was ·inside [in the belly of] the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah 1
EasyEnglish Bible
Jonah runs away
1 The Lord spoke a message to Jonah, Amittai's son.[a] 2 He said, ‘Go now to the great city of Nineveh. Tell the people in the city that I know how wicked they are. Tell them that I will punish them because of their sins.’
3 But Jonah did not want to obey the Lord's command. He decided to run away to Tarshish.[b] He went down to Joppa.[c] There he found a ship that was ready to sail to Tarshish. After he had paid for the journey, he got into the ship. He wanted to go on the ship to Tarshish, to get far away from the Lord.
A big storm
4 Then the Lord sent a strong wind on the sea. The storm was so powerful that it almost broke the ship into pieces. 5 The sailors were very frightened. Each of them called out to his own god for help. They threw into the sea all the things that the ship carried. They wanted to make the ship as light as they could. Jonah had gone down into the bottom of the ship. He was lying down and he was asleep.
6 The ship's captain went to Jonah. He said, ‘Why are you sleeping like that? Get up now! Call to your god for help! Maybe he will listen to us and we will not die.’
7 Then the sailors said to each other, ‘We should throw dice to find out who has brought all this trouble to us.’ So they threw dice. The dice showed that Jonah had caused the storm.
8 So they said to Jonah, ‘Tell us, who has caused all this trouble for us? What is your job? Where do you come from? What country do you live in? Who is your family?’[d]
9 Jonah answered them, ‘I am a Hebrew man. I worship the Lord who is the God of heaven. He made the sea and the land.’ 10 This made the sailors even more afraid. Jonah had already told them that he was running away from the Lord. So they said to him, ‘Why did you do a thing like that?’
11 The waves in the sea were becoming bigger because of the storm. So the sailors asked Jonah, ‘What should we do to you so that the sea becomes quiet?’ 12 Jonah replied, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become quiet. It is because of me that you are in danger from this great storm.’
13 But the sailors did not do what Jonah said. Instead, they tried to use oars to drive the ship back to the land. But the storm was too strong and they could not do that.
14 So the sailors called aloud to the Lord. They prayed, ‘Lord, please do not punish us with death if we have to kill this man! Do not say that we are guilty because we have killed someone who has done nothing wrong. Lord, we know that you have sent this storm because you wanted to do it.’
15 Then the sailors took hold of Jonah and they threw him into the sea. The storm stopped and the sea became quiet. 16 When they saw what had happened, the sailors became very afraid of the Lord's power. They offered a sacrifice to him and they promised that they would serve him.
17 But the Lord sent a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was inside the fish's stomach for three days and three nights.[e]
Footnotes
- 1:1 When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It is his own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there.
- 1:3 Tarshish was a port that was far away to the west.
- 1:3 Joppa was a port in Israel, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
- 1:8 The sailors were very afraid. They wanted to know who Jonah was. They wanted to know which gods he worshipped.
- 1:17 The great fish may have been what we call a whale. The Hebrew word could include whales as well as fish. ‘Swallow’ means that the fish took Jonah down into its stomach but it did not bite him.
Jonah 1
Good News Translation
Jonah Disobeys the Lord
1 (A)One day the Lord spoke to Jonah son of Amittai. 2 He said, “Go to Nineveh, that great city, and speak out against it; I am aware of how wicked its people are.” 3 Jonah, however, set out in the opposite direction in order to get away from the Lord. He went to Joppa, where he found a ship about to go to Spain. He paid his fare and went aboard with the crew to sail to Spain, where he would be away from the Lord.
4 But the Lord sent a strong wind on the sea, and the storm was so violent that the ship was in danger of breaking up. 5 The sailors were terrified and cried out for help, each one to his own god. Then, in order to lessen the danger,[a] they threw the cargo[b] overboard. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone below and was lying in the ship's hold, sound asleep.
6 The captain found him there and said to him, “What are you doing asleep? Get up and pray to your god for help. Maybe he will feel sorry for us and spare our lives.”
7 The sailors said to each other, “Let's draw lots and find out who is to blame for getting us into this danger.” They did so, and Jonah's name was drawn. 8 So they said to him, “Now, then, tell us! Who is to blame for this? What are you doing here? What country do you come from? What is your nationality?”
9 “I am a Hebrew,” Jonah answered. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made land and sea.” 10 Jonah went on to tell them that he was running away from the Lord.
The sailors were terrified, and said to him, “That was an awful thing to do!”[c] 11 The storm was getting worse all the time, so the sailors asked him, “What should we do to you to stop the storm?”
12 Jonah answered, “Throw me into the sea, and it will calm down. I know it is my fault that you are caught in this violent storm.”
13 Instead, the sailors tried to get the ship to shore, rowing with all their might. But the storm was becoming worse and worse, and they got nowhere. 14 So they cried out to the Lord, “O Lord, we pray, don't punish us with death for taking this man's life! You, O Lord, are responsible for all this; it is your doing.” 15 Then they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and it calmed down at once. 16 This made the sailors so afraid of the Lord that they offered a sacrifice and promised to serve him.
17 (B)At the Lord's command a large fish swallowed Jonah, and he was inside the fish for three days and three nights.
Footnotes
- Jonah 1:5 lessen the danger; or lighten the ship.
- Jonah 1:5 cargo; or equipment.
- Jonah 1:10 and said … to do!; or and asked him, “Why did you have to run away like that?”
约拿书 1
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
约拿违背耶和华
1 耶和华对亚米太的儿子约拿说： 2 “你起来前往尼尼微大城，大声警告那里的居民，因为他们的罪恶滔天，已经达到我面前。” 3 可是，约拿却起身逃往他施，想躲避耶和华。他到了约帕港，看见一艘要开往他施的船，就付了船费，上了船，想和众人一起去他施，好躲避耶和华。
4 然而，耶和华使海面起了狂风，滔天巨浪几乎把船打成碎片。 5 水手们非常害怕，纷纷呼求自己的神，又把船上的货物全都抛进海里，以减轻重量。这时候，约拿已下到底舱，躺在那里呼呼大睡。 6 船长来到约拿身边对他说：“你这个人，怎么这时候还在睡觉！快起来祈求你的神吧，也许你的神会怜悯我们，饶我们一命。”
7 后来，船上的人彼此商量说：“来，我们抽签，看看这场灾难是谁惹来的。”于是他们就抽签，结果抽中了约拿。 8 众人问他：“请告诉我们，这场灾难是谁惹来的？你是做什么的？从哪里来？是哪一国、哪一族的人？” 9 约拿回答说：“我是希伯来人，我敬畏耶和华，祂是创造海洋陆地、掌管诸天的上帝。” 10 之后，他就把怎样逃避耶和华的事告诉他们。众人知道后，万分恐惧，问他：“你怎么做出这种事？”
11 那时，风浪越来越大，他们便对约拿说：“我们要怎样处置你，才能使风浪平静呢？” 12 约拿对他们说：“我知道这场风暴是因我而起的，你们把我抬起来抛进海里，风浪自然会平静。” 13 然而船上的人还是拚命划船，希望把船划向岸边，可是没有成功，因为风浪实在太大了。 14 他们只好呼求耶和华，说：“耶和华啊，求你不要因这个人的性命而毁灭我们，不要因我们杀害无辜的人而怪罪我们，因为你耶和华按自己的旨意行事。” 15 然后他们把约拿抬起来抛进海里，狂风巨浪立刻平静了。 16 众人都极其敬畏耶和华，向祂献祭，并且许愿。
17 耶和华安排了一条大鱼，把约拿吞下，他在鱼腹里度过三天三夜。
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