Jonah 1:1-3

1The Lord spoke a message to Jonah, Amittai's son.

2He 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.’

3But Jonah did not want to obey the Lord's command. He decided to run away to Tarshish. He went down to Joppa. 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.