GOD SAID TO JONAH, "Go at once to the great city of Nineveh and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." Jonah knew that if he gave the people of Nineveh God’s warning, they would beg for forgiveness. Jonah was also sure that they would be forgiven, since God was a merciful God. Jonah didn’t like the Ninevites and didn’t want them to be forgiven, so he took a ship to Tarshish, a town in the opposite direction from Nineveh, and the one farthest away.

While that ship was sailing to Tarshish, a terrible storm came up. The sailors were very afraid, and they threw all their cargo into the sea to lighten the ship in the water. Jonah, meanwhile, was fast asleep below deck.

The captain woke Jonah and begged him to call upon his God to keep them from dying. Then the sailors questioned him. "Where do you come from? Why are you here? When they found out that he was running away from his God, they cried, "What is this you have done? What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?"

Jonah answered, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you."

Still they tried to get back to land, but the storm got worse. Finally, they realized that they would have to throw Jonah into the sea if the rest of them were to be saved. So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea. The sea stopped its raging, and the sailors were certain that God had caused the storm.

God then provided a large fish to swallow Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three nights and three days. Then Jonah prayed to God for deliverance; God spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.

Again, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, and this time Jonah went. The people of Nineveh listened to Jonah, and they begged God to forgive them. God heard their cries and was full of mercy for the Ninevites, just as Jonah knew God would be. Therefore they were forgiven. This made Jonah angry, but God finally convinced him that the people of Nineveh were worth saving.