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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