The story about Jonah
(The book in the Holy Bible called Jonah)
About this story
This story is about a man called Jonah. He lived about 800 years before Jesus came to earth.
This story was in God’s book that the Israel people had before Jesus came to earth. That book is now the first part of the Holy Bible, called the Old Testament.
Jonah was a man that God picked to tell people his messages. Back then, God normally just told his own Israel people his messages, he didn’t normally tell messages to other nations. But the story of Jonah is different. Jonah lived in Israel country, but God sent him to a big city called Nineveh, that was not in Israel country. Nineveh was in a country called Assyria, and the people from Nineveh were enemies of God’s Israel people. God sent Jonah to Nineveh to tell the Nineveh people his message.
At first, Jonah didn’t listen to God. He tried to run away from God. But God still wanted to use Jonah to tell the Nineveh people his message. So God talked to Jonah again.
This story happened a long time ago, but it is still very important for us today. It shows us that God uses his people to share his messages. And it shows us that God cares about people, and that everyone needs to hear God’s message. And it shows us that sometimes bad people listen to God, and they tell him they are sorry, and they stop living the wrong way. And then God feels sorry for them, and he doesn’t punish them. He lets go of all the bad things that they did, and he is very good to them.
1
Jonah ran away from God
1 There 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.’ ”
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.
4-5 Then 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.
6 Jonah 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.”
7 Then 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.
8 So 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?”
9 Jonah 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. 10 But 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.”
11 The 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?”
12 Jonah 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.”
13 But 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.
14 Then 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.”
15 Then they picked up Jonah, and they threw him into the sea, and the storm stopped, and the sea was quiet and still.
16 Then 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
17 While 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.*
* 1:1 2 Kings 14:25 * 1:17 Matthew 12:40