One time a man named Jonah promised the Lord that he would do whatever the Lord said, so when the Lord needed someone to go to a city of bad ones called Nineveh, to help them come back to Him,

 

the Lord called Jonah and said, Get up now and go to Nineveh, that great city, because much bad stuff from there is causing the cries of the hurting people to come up to My ears.

But Jonah got up and ran real fast the other way to get away from the Lord. He went as far as he could go and then got in a ship to go even farther away from the Lord.

But the Lord sent out a great big wind on the sea so that the waves got real tall and the ship was being bumped about so much that it was about to break in pieces.

The sailors were real scared and called loud to the statues they bowed down to and threw all the grain and stuff out of the ship so it wouldn’t sink.

 

 

 

But Jonah was laying down inside the ship sleeping.

 

So the captain came to him and said, What are you doing, O sleepy one. Get up and pray to your god to help us because we are about to sink and die.

Then sailors said, Let’s draw straws and see whose fault it is that this bad thing is happening. So they drew straws and it showed that it was Jonah’s fault that the bad thing was happening. They said, You who caused this to come on us, where are you from and what is your job?

Jonah told them, I am a Hebrew from the country of Israel and I bow down to the God who made heaven and the sea and the dry land.

 

 

When the sailors heard this they were even more scared and asked, What did you do for Him to do this?

 

 

 

 

Jonah told them, I am running away from the face of the Lord God.

 

They asked, What can we do to make it stop? Because the sea was tossing the ship up and down real high.

Jonah said, Throw me overboard into the sea and it will be quiet for you because it is my fault that this happened.

 

But the sailors didn’t want to throw Jonah over the side into the tossing waters so they rowed really hard to try to get to land.

 

 

But the sea tossed them even higher and higher.

So they called out to the Lord and said, We beg you, O Lord, we beg you, do not let us die for throwing this man into the sea because you did this because you wanted to.

 

 

So they took Jonah up and threw him over the side of the ship into the sea and the sea got real calm.

 

 

That scared them down to their toes as they saw Jonah sinking down, down, down into the calm water.

Now the Lord had got ready a big fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from in the fishes belly and said, I call out because of this terrible trouble and You heard my voice.

You threw me into the deep, into the middle of the sea and the waters twirled around my head and all your waves kept crashing over me.

 

 

 

 

Then I looked to Your holy temple as the deep waters closed over me and the weeds of the sea wrapped around my head.

 

I went down, down, down and saw the bottoms of the mountains and the pillars that hold up the land.

 

 

I died, but you brought my life back up from the pit again, O Lord my God.

 

When my soul was ready to disappear, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to You in Your holy temple.

The ones who look to empty lying bad ones turn away from all the special goodness You have for them, but I will give to You my best words and be very happy thinking about You. I will do what I promised.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord is the only One who can save us.

 

 

 

Then the Lord talked to the fish and it threw up Jonah on the dry land.