But Jonah set out to flee toward Tarshish from {the presence of} Yahweh. And he went down [to] Joppa and found a merchant ship going [to] Tarshish, and paid her fare, and went on board her to go with them toward Tarshish from {the presence of} Yahweh.

So they said to him, "Please tell us whoever [is responsible that] this disaster [has come] upon us! What [is] your occupation? And from where do you come? What [is] your country? And from which people [are] you?"

Then the men {were greatly afraid}, and they said to him, "What [is] this you have done?" because they knew that he [was] fleeing {from the presence of} Yahweh (because he had told them).

And they picked Jonah up and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

And Jonah prayed to Yahweh his God from the belly of the fish

and said, "I called {from my distress} to Yahweh, and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried for help-- you heard my voice.

And I said, 'I am banished from your sight; how {will I continue to look} {on your holy temple}?'

I went down to the foundations of [the] mountains; the Underworld--its bars [were] around me forever. But you brought up my life from [the] pit, Yahweh my God.

When my life was ebbing away from me, I remembered Yahweh, and my prayer came to you, {to your holy temple}.

And the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth--from the greatest of them {to the least important}.

And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and removed his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.

And [the] human beings and [the] animals must be covered [with] sackcloth! And they must call forcefully to God, and each must turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who knows? God may relent and change his mind and turn {from his blazing anger} {so that} we will not perish."

And God saw their deeds--that they turned from their evil ways--and God changed his mind about the evil that he had said [he would] bring upon them, and he did not do [it].

And so then, Yahweh, please take my life from me, because [for] me death [is] better than life!"

And Jonah went out from the city and sat [down] east of the city, and he made for himself a shelter there. And he sat under it in the shade, {waiting to see} what would happen with the city.

And Yahweh God appointed a plant, and he made it grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. And Jonah {was very glad} about the plant.

And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, the great city, {in which there are} more {than one hundred and twenty thousand} people who do not know right from left, plus many animals?"