1 One day the Lord told Jonah, the son of Amittai,
2 to go to the great city of Nineveh and say to the people, “The Lord has seen your terrible sins. You are doomed!”
3 Instead, Jonah ran from the Lord. He went to the seaport of Joppa and bought a ticket on a ship that was going to Spain. Then he got on the ship and sailed away to escape.
4 But the Lord made a strong wind blow, and such a bad storm came up that the ship was about to be broken to pieces.
5 The sailors were frightened, and they all started praying to their gods. They even threw the ship's cargo overboard to make the ship lighter.All this time, Jonah was down below deck, sound asleep.
6 The ship's captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep at a time like this? Get up and pray to your God! Perhaps he will have pity on us and keep us from drowning.”
7 Finally, the sailors got together and said, “Let's ask our gods to show us who caused all this trouble.” It turned out to be Jonah.