Jonah 1:1–3

Jonah Flees the Presence of the Lord

1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil¹ has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

Footnotes

[1] 1:2 The same Hebrew word can mean evil or disaster, depending on the context; so throughout Jonah

(ESV)