Jonah and the Fish for Kids

One day, Yahweh told Jonah, “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city. Warn its people, because their wickedness has come before me.” But Jonah went the other way. He hurried down to Joppa, paid his fare, and boarded a ship sailing for faraway Tarshish. He hoped to flee from Yahweh’s presence.

Yahweh sent a powerful wind across the sea. Waves battered the ship so fiercely that it was in danger of breaking apart. The frightened sailors cried to their gods and threw cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck and fallen fast asleep. The captain found him and said, “Get up! Call on your God!”

The sailors cast lots to discover who had brought this trouble, and the lot pointed to Jonah. Jonah told them he was a Hebrew who feared Yahweh, the God who made sea and dry land. He admitted he was fleeing from God. “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he said. “Then it will become calm.”

Still, the sailors rowed hard toward land. They could not reach it, for the storm grew wilder. At last they prayed that Yahweh would not hold them guilty for Jonah’s death. Then they threw Jonah into the sea. At once, the raging water became still. The sailors feared Yahweh greatly. They offered him a sacrifice and made vows to him.

Yahweh had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was alive inside it for three days and three nights. From that deep place, Jonah prayed. He remembered the waves closing around him, yet he trusted that God heard his voice. He promised to thank and obey Yahweh, saying, “Salvation belongs to Yahweh.” Then God spoke to the fish, and it spit Jonah out onto dry land.

God called Jonah a second time: “Go to Nineveh and proclaim my message.” This time Jonah obeyed. He entered the enormous city and announced, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!” The people believed God. They fasted and put on sackcloth. The king rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. He commanded everyone to turn from evil and violence. When God saw that they had turned from their evil ways, he did not bring the threatened disaster.

Jonah was angry that Nineveh had been spared. He sat east of the city under a shelter, waiting to see what would happen. God prepared a leafy plant to shade him, and Jonah was glad. But at dawn the next day, God sent a worm, and the plant withered. Then a scorching east wind blew, and the sun beat on Jonah’s head. God reminded Jonah that he cared about a plant he had not grown. Should God not care even more for the many people and animals in Nineveh?