1 The Lord spoke his word to Jonah son of Amittai:
2 “Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it. I see the evil things they do.”
3 But Jonah got up to run away from the Lord. He went to the city of Joppa. There he found a ship that was going to the city of Tarshish. Jonah paid for the trip and went aboard. He wanted to go to Tarshish to run away from the Lord.
4 But the Lord sent a great wind on the sea. This wind made the sea very rough. So the ship was in danger of breaking apart.
5 The sailors were afraid. Each man cried to his own god. The men began throwing the cargo into the sea. This would make the ship lighter so it would not sink.But Jonah had gone down into the ship to lie down. He fell fast asleep.
6 The captain of the ship came and said, “Why are you sleeping? Get up! Pray to your god! Maybe your god will pay attention to us. Maybe he will save us!”
7 Then the men said to each other, “Let’s throw lots to see who caused these troubles to happen to us.”So the men threw lots. The lot showed that the trouble had happened because of Jonah.