Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Jonah 1

Jonah flees YHWH’s command, but YHWH rules the sea and brings the fleeing prophet’s course to a halt.

YHWH sends Jonah son of Amittai to preach against Nineveh because of its wickedness. Jonah boards a ship bound for Tarshish instead. When YHWH sends a storm that threatens the ship, the sailors seek its cause while Jonah sleeps below deck. Jonah admits responsibility and tells them to throw him overboard. They resist, then pray to YHWH and do as Jonah says. The sea grows calm, and YHWH prepares a huge fish to swallow Jonah.

guilt and confessionsermon or Bible study notes
Read
1Now the LORD’s word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
3But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
4But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up.
5Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship and he was laying down, and was fast asleep.
6So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”
7They all said to each other, “Come! Let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
9He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”
10Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
11Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy.
12He said to them, “Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.”
13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them.
14Therefore they cried to the LORD, and said, “We beg you, LORD, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, LORD, have done as it pleased you.”
15So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging.
16Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
17The LORD prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Jonah 1:2YHWH’s command establishes Nineveh’s wickedness as his concern and names the task Jonah will try to escape.
Jonah 1:3Jonah’s repeated destination, Tarshish, makes his refusal concrete: he pays for passage away from the work God assigned.
Jonah 1:6The ship master calls the sleeping prophet to prayer while the sailors struggle to keep everyone alive.
Where this chapter reaches

Psalm shares Jonah’s picture of sailors in peril, crying out amid a storm, and God bringing the sea to calm. Matthew makes an explicit link between Jonah’s three days and three nights inside the fish and the burial of Jesus before his resurrection.

Jonah 1's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What do you notice about the gap between Jonah’s confession about God and his actions?

Write on this

How does the sailors’ response to YHWH change as the storm unfolds?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Jonah 1

Why did Jonah flee to Tarshish instead of going to Nineveh?

Jonah 1 states that Jonah fled after God commanded him to preach against Nineveh, but it does not explain his motive. His destination makes his refusal clear. The repeated phrase “from the presence of the LORD” describes his attempted flight, while the storm shows that he remains under God’s rule.

Was Jonah swallowed by a whale or a fish?

The supplied text calls the creature a “huge fish” and does not identify its species. The emphasis falls on YHWH preparing it to swallow Jonah and on Jonah remaining inside it for three days and three nights. The chapter ends with Jonah still in the fish.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Jonah 1. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Jonah · 4 chapters
1234
What the Bible says about guilt →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).