A reading from the book of the prophet Jonah,

This is the word of the Lord that came to Jonah, son of Amiti, set out for the great city of

Nineveh and preach against it. Their wickedness has come up before me.

But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarsus away from the Lord. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarsus,

paid the fair, and went aboard to journey with them to Tarsius, away from the Lord.

The Lord, however, hurled a violent wind upon the sea and in the furious tempest that arose.

The ship was on the point of breaking up.

Then the mariners became frightened, and each one cried out to his God.

To lighten the ship for themselves, they threw its cargo into the sea. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone

down into the hold of the ship and lay there fast asleep. The captain came to him and said,

What are you doing? Asleep, rise up, call upon your God. Perhaps God will be mindful of us,

so that we may not perish. Then they said to one another, come let us cast lots to find out on whose account we have met with this misfortune.

So they cast lots and thus singled out Jonah.

Tell us, they said, what is your business?

Where do you come from?

What is your country?

And to what people do you belong? Jonah answered them, I am a Hebrew.

I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Now, the men were seized

with great fear and said to him, how could you do such a thing? They knew that he was fleeing

from the Lord because he had told them.

They asked, what shall we do with you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea was

growing more and more turbulent. Jonah said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea,

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