"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me."

They all said to each other, "Come, let us 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.

Then 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.

He 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."

He said, "I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice.

For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.

The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God.

"When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Yahweh. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.

He prayed to Yahweh, and said, "Please, Yahweh, wasn't this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.

Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live."

It happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah's head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."