1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying: 2 Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it. For its malice has ascended before my eyes. 3 And Jonah rose in order to flee from the face of the Lord to Tarshish. And he went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. And he paid its fare, and he went down into it, in order to go with them to Tarshish from the face of the Lord. 4 But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea. And a great tempest took place in the sea, and the ship was in danger of being crushed. 5 And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried out to their god. And they threw the containers that were in the ship into the sea in order to lighten it of them. And Jonah went down into the interior of the ship, and he fell into a painful deep sleep. 6 And the helmsman approached him, and he said to him, “Why are you weighed down with sleep? Rise, call upon your God, so perhaps God will be mindful of us and we might not perish.” 7 And a man said to his shipmate, “Come, and let us cast lots, so that we may know why this disaster is upon us.” And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. 8 And they said to him: “Explain to us what is the reason that this disaster is upon us. What is your work? Which is your country? And where are you going? Or which people are you from?” 9 And he said to them, “I am Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 And the men were greatly afraid, and they said to him, “Why have you done this?” (For the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he had told them.) 11 And they said to him, “What are we to do with you, so that the sea will cease for us?” For the sea flowed and swelled. 12 And he said to them, “Take me, and cast me into the sea, and the sea will cease for you. For I know that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 And the men were rowing, so as to return to dry land, but they did not succeed. For the sea flowed and swelled against them. 14 And they cried out to the Lord, and they said, “We beseech you, Lord, do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not attribute to us innocent blood. For you, Lord, have done just as it pleased you.” 15 And they took Jonah and cast him into the sea. And the sea was stilled from its fury. 16 And the men feared the Lord greatly, and they sacrificed victims to the Lord, and they made vows.
Jonah · Catholic Public Domain Version
Jonah 1 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Amittai
Named as the father of the prophet Jonah.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 14:25; Jonah 1:1
Jonah
The prophet from Gath-hepher, son of Amittai, through whom the LORD spoke that Jeroboam son of Joash would restore Israel's boundary.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 14:25; Jonah 1:1; Jonah 1:3
Places
Joppa
Judah's main seaport. Cedar for the Temple arrived here, Jonah fled from here, and Peter's rooftop vision here opened the gospel to the Gentiles.
Cited in the guide: Jonah 1:3; Acts 9:36; Acts 10:9
Cross references (16)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Luke 11:32; Luke 11:29–30; 2 Kings 14:25; Matthew 16:4; Matthew 12:39–41
- 2 Genesis 18:20–21; Genesis 10:11; Nahum 1:1; Isaiah 58:1; Jonah 4:11
- 3 Psalm 139:7–12; Joshua 19:46; Genesis 4:16; Acts 9:43; 2 Thessalonians 1:9
- 4 Psalm 107:23–31; Matthew 8:24–27; Exodus 14:21; Psalm 135:7; Amos 4:13
- 5 Jeremiah 2:28; Acts 27:18–19; 1 Kings 18:26; Judges 16:19; Luke 22:45–46
- 6 Psalm 107:28–29; Jonah 3:9; Mark 4:37–41; Ephesians 5:14; 2 Samuel 12:22
- 7 Proverbs 16:33; Joshua 7:13–18; Numbers 32:23; Joshua 7:10; 1 Samuel 14:41–42
- 8 Genesis 47:3; 1 Samuel 30:13; James 5:16; Joshua 7:19; 1 Samuel 14:43
- 9 Psalm 146:5–6; Psalm 95:5–6; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 136:26; Nehemiah 1:4
- 10 Jonah 1:3; Job 27:22; Joshua 7:25; John 19:8; Daniel 5:6–9
- 11 1 Samuel 6:2–3; Micah 6:6–7; 2 Samuel 21:1–6; 2 Samuel 24:11–13
- 12 2 Samuel 24:17; 1 Chronicles 21:17; Joshua 7:12; John 11:50; Joshua 7:20–21
- 13 Proverbs 21:30; Job 34:29
- 14 Psalm 115:3; Psalm 135:6; Deuteronomy 21:8; Ephesians 1:11; Psalm 107:28
- 15 Luke 8:24; Psalm 93:3–4; Psalm 107:29; Psalm 89:9; Matthew 8:26
- 16 Daniel 6:26; Psalm 116:14; Genesis 8:20; Psalm 50:14; Psalm 107:22
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… the sign of Jonah, for those who held the same opinion as Jonah regarding the Lord, and who confessed, and said, "I am a servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord God of heaven, who hath made the sea and the dry land." [This was done] that man, receiving an unhoped-for salvation from God, might rise from the …
But the one says, Take me, and cast me into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you; the other, Himself rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)