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?"