Jonah
T he word of the Lord came to Jo nah son of Amit tai:“ Go to the great city of Nin e veh and preach against it, be cause its wick edness has come up be fore me.”
But Jo nah ran away from the Lord and head ed for Tar shish. He went down to Jop pa, where he found a ship bound for that port. Af ter pay ing the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tar shish to flee from the Lord.
Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a vi o lent storm arose that the ship threat ened to break up. All the sail ors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the car go into the sea to light en the ship.
But Jo nah had gone be low deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The cap tain went to him and said,“ How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! May be he will take no tice of us so that we will not per ish.”
Then the sail ors said to each oth er,“ Come, let us cast lots to find out who is re spon si ble for this ca lam i ty.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jo nah. So they asked him,“ Tell us, who is re sponsi ble for mak ing all this trou ble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your coun try? From what people are you?”
He an swered,“ I am a He brew and I wor ship the Lord, the God of heav en, who made the sea and the dry land.”
This ter ri fied them and they asked,“ What have you done?”( They knew he was run ning away from the Lord, be cause he had al ready told them so.)
The sea was get ting rough er and rough er. So they asked him,“ What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
“ Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he re plied,“ and it will be come calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
In stead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wild er than be fore. Then they cried out to the Lord,“ Please, Lord, do not let us die for tak ing this man’ s life. Do not hold us ac count able for kill ing an in no cent man, for
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