Jonah ran away from God

1There was a man in Israel country called Jonah. His father’s name was Amittai. One day, the God of Israel talked to Jonah. God said to Jonah,

2“You know the big city called Nineveh that is not in Israel country? The people in that city do really bad things, and I see all the things they do. So you have to go there now, to that big city called Nineveh. You have to tell those people, ‘God is angry with you.’”

3But Jonah didn’t listen to God. Instead, he ran away from God. He went down to the town called Joppa. He wanted to get on a ship there, and go to the town called Tarshish. Tarshish is a long way away from Nineveh.Jonah ran away from God and got on a ship In Joppa, Jonah found a ship that was going to Tarshish, so he paid some money to the ship-men so he can go on that ship. Then he got on the ship to go to Tarshish with them. Jonah was running away from God.

4Then Jonah went down inside the ship and lay down, and he fell asleep. While they were sailing, God sent a big wind over the sea, and there was a big storm.There was a big storm and the ship-men were frightened That storm was really strong, and the ship-men thought the ship might break up. All the ship-men were frightened, so they called out to their own gods and asked them to help. That ship was carrying lots of heavy boxes and bags of things, to take them to Tarshish. But that storm was really big, so the ship-men threw all those heavy things into the sea to make the ship lighter.

6Jonah was still asleep down inside the ship, so the ship’s boss went to Jonah and said, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray to your god. Maybe he will feel sorry for us and help us, so that we don’t die.”

7Then the ship-men talked to each other. They said, “Why do we have this trouble? Who did something wrong to make this trouble come on us? Let’s put small stones in a bag, one stone for each of us, and we’ll pull out one person’s stone. That stone will show us who made this trouble come on us.” So they did that, and they pulled out Jonah’s stone.

8So those ship-men asked Jonah, “Did you make this trouble come on us? Did you do something bad? Who are you? What is your job? And where do you come from? What country are you from? And who are your people?”

9Jonah said to them, “I am from the Hebrew people, from Israel country. Our God’s name is Yahweh, and we have to respect him. I know he has all the power. He is the big boss in heaven. He made the sea and the land.

10But right now, I am running away from him.” Then the ship-men got really frightened. They asked Jonah, “Why are you running away from your god? That is a bad thing to do.”

11The sea was getting more and more rough. So the ship-men asked Jonah, “How can we stop this storm and make the sea quiet and still? What do we have to do to you?”

12Jonah said to them, “You have to pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the storm will stop, and the sea will be quiet and still. This storm is my fault. I did something wrong, and that’s the reason why you are in this big storm.”

13But the ship-men didn’t want to throw Jonah into the sea, so they tried hard to row back to the land. But the sea was getting more and more rough, so they couldn’t do it.

14Then the ship-men prayed to Jonah’s God. They said, “Yahweh, you sent this storm and made all of this happen. If we throw this man into the sea, please don’t kill us. Maybe he did nothing wrong, we don’t know, but please don’t do payback to us.”

15Then they picked up Jonah, and they threw him into the sea, and the storm stopped, and the sea was quiet and still.

16Then the ship-men knew that Jonah’s God is powerful, and they showed him lots of respect. They killed an animal to give to Jonah’s God, and they made promises to him.

God sent a big fish to Jonah

17While the ship-men did that, God sent a big fish to Jonah. Jonah was deep down in the water, and that big fish came and swallowed Jonah alive. Jonah stayed inside that fish for 3 days and 3 nights.