Jonah 1:3

But 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. 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.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

In Context

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.’”

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. 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.

Read all of Jonah 1

Cross References

Genesis 3:8Later on, in the cool part of the day, the man and the woman heard God walking in the garden. So they got behind some trees in the garden to hide from God.

Matthew Henry on Jonah 1:2-4

Jonah This book of Jonah, though it be placed here in the midst of the prophetical books of scripture, is yet rather a history than a prophecy; one line of prediction there is in it, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown; the rest of the book is a narrative of the preface to and the consequences of that prediction. In the midst of the obscure prophecies before and after this book, wherein are many things dark and hard to be understood, which are puzzling to the learned, and are strong meat for strong… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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