The Hebrew Prophets

They said to him, "Tell us now, why has this calamity come upon us? What work do you do? Where are you from? What is your country? Which is your people?"

He answered them, "I am a Hebrew; and I fear ADONAI, the God of heaven, who made both the sea and the dry land."

At this the men grew very afraid and said to him, "What is this that you have done?" For the men knew he was trying to get away from ADONAI, since he had told them.

They asked him, "What should we do to you, so that the sea will be calm for us?" - for the sea was getting rougher all the time.

"Pick me up," he told them, "and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; because I know it's my fault that this terrible storm has come over you."

Nevertheless, the men rowed hard, trying to reach the shore. But they couldn't, because the sea kept growing wilder against them.

Finally they cried to ADONAI, "Please, ADONAI, please! Don't let us perish for causing the death of this man, and don't hold us to account for shedding innocent blood; because you, ADONAI, have done what you saw fit."

Then they picked up Yonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging.

Seized with great fear of ADONAI, they offered a sacrifice to ADONAI and made vows.

ADONAI prepared a huge fish to swallow Yonah; and Yonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

From the belly of the fish Yonah prayed to ADONAI his God;

he said, "Out of my distress I called to ADONAI, and he answered me; from the belly of Sh'ol I cried, and you heard my voice.

For you threw me into the deep, into the heart of the seas; and the flood enveloped me; all your surging waves passed over me.

I thought, 'I have been banished from your sight.' But I will again look at your holy temple.

The water surrounded me, threatened my life; the deep closed over me, seaweed twined around my head.

I was going down to the bottoms of the mountains, to a land whose bars would close me in forever; but you brought me up alive from the pit, ADONAI, my God!

As my life was ebbing away, I remembered ADONAI; and my prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.

"Those who worship vain idols give up their source of mercy;

but I, speaking my thanks aloud, will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed, I will pay. Salvation comes from ADONAI!"

Then ADONAI spoke to the fish, and it vomited Yonah out onto dry land.

The word of ADONAI came to Yonah a second time:

"Set out for the great city of Ninveh, and proclaim to it the message I will give you."

So Yonah set out and went to Ninveh, as ADONAI had said. Now Ninveh was such a large city that it took three days just to cross it.

Yonah began his entry into the city and had finished only his first day of proclaiming, 'In forty days Ninveh will be overthrown,'

when the people of Ninveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.