Jonah 1:1-6

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.

4Then the Lord sent a strong wind on the sea. The storm was so powerful that it almost broke the ship into pieces.

5The 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.

6The 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.’