CHAPTER 1 Dec. 1 
Jonah Tries to Flee from God 
Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me. 3But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going down to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, in order to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. 4But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up. 5Then the sailors were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship and he was laying down, deeply asleep. 6So the captain came to him and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will look to us so that we won’t perish.  7They all said to each other, Come, let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8Then they asked him, Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?  9He said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.  10Then were the men extremely afraid and said to him, What is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them. 11Then they said to him, What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us? For the sea grew more and more stormy. 12He said to them, Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.  13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14Therefore they cried to Yahweh and said, We beg you Yahweh, we beg you, don’t let us die for the sake of this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, Yahweh, have done as it pleased You. 15So they took up Jonah, and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging. 16Then the men feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows.  17Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Commentary

1:3 Jonah is described as going progressively ‘down’- down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into the hold of the ship, and then down into the depths of the sea (1:3,5; 2:6). Yet he was brought up from it. This was the depth of his degradation. Jonah was like Nineveh- the “wickedness” of Nineveh (1:2; 3:8) is the same Hebrew word used in 4:1 where Jonah was displeased “exceedingly”, i.e. ‘wickedly’. Their wickedness was paralleled with the wickedness of his hard heartedness towards them. When the sailors awoke him with the words “Get up and call …”, they were using the very words which God had used perhaps just days earlier to call him with. We can’t escape the call- God will repeat it to us through life’s circumstances, even through our very efforts to avoid the call. The obvious lesson is to willingly and in love respond to the calls we receive, rather than go through the agonies of seeking to avoid them. Jonah’s response: “I am an Hebrew…” was basically his response to God… he didn’t want to give Nineveh a chance of salvation because he was a patriotic Jew. God does these complex things with us many times daily… if we will perceive them.