Jonah 1:5-16

The sailors were afraid, and each man cried to his own god. They began throwing the cargo from the ship into the sea to make the ship lighter. But Jonah had gone down far inside the ship to lie down, and he fell fast asleep. The captain of the ship came and said, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray to your god! Maybe your god will pay attention to us, and we won’t die!” Then the men said to each other, “Let’s throw lots to see who caused these troubles to happen to us.” When they threw lots, the lot showed that the trouble had happened because of Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us, who caused our trouble? What is your job? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?” Then Jonah said to them, “I am a Hebrew. I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” The men were very afraid, and they asked Jonah, “What terrible thing did you do?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD because he had told them.) Since the wind and the waves of the sea were becoming much stronger, they said to him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” Jonah said to them, “Pick me up, and throw me into the sea, and then it will calm down. I know it is my fault that this great storm has come on you.” Instead, the men tried to row the ship back to the land, but they could not, because the sea was becoming more stormy. So the men cried to the LORD, “LORD, please don’t let us die because of this man’s life; please don’t think we are guilty of killing an innocent person. LORD, you have caused all this to happen; you wanted it this way.” So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea became calm. Then they began to fear the LORD very much; they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made promises to him.