Jonah 1:1-3·~1 min

Jonah Flees from the LORD

The LORD commissions Jonah to go to Nineveh because its wickedness has come before Him. Jonah responds by traveling in the opposite direction, descending toward Joppa and boarding a ship to Tarshish in an intentional attempt to flee from the presence of the LORD. The paragraph is compact but decisive: the prophet's first movement in the book is not obedience but resistance.

N¹ow the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ²“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.” ³Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

Section summaryThe chapter begins with a direct command from the LORD: Jonah is to go to Nineveh and preach against its wickedness. Instead of moving toward the mission, Jonah moves away from it at every step. He goes down to Joppa, finds a ship bound for Tarshish, pays the fare, and boards it, all in an intentional attempt to flee from the presence of the LORD. The section is brief, but it frames the whole story by exposing both Jonah's resistance and the futility of trying to escape the God who sent him.

Role in the chapterThis section establishes Jonah's disobedience and sets the entire narrative in motion by contrasting God's clear command with the prophet's deliberate flight.