jonah and the whale

By Jonah and Noah

Once there was a man named Jonah. He was a messenger for G-d and he didn’t like his job. One day G-d gave an order to Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people of Nineveh to stop being bad. Jonah didn’t want to help the people of Nineveh instead he wanted them to get punished. G-d wanted to see if the people of Nineveh would listen to Jonah and if not G-d would destroy all of Nineveh.

So instead of listening to G-d Jonah tried to run away from Nineveh and not do what G-d asked him? He ran to the sea where he found a ship that was going to another city. He paid the captain and hid in the bottom of the ship and went to sleep.

That night a big storm occurred, all the men were scared and started to toss all their belongings overboard and prayed that they wouldn’t drown.

The captain went to find Jonah who was still asleep.
He said to Jonah “how can you sleep? Get up and pray to your G-d maybe he can help us!”

Meanwhile the other sailors decided that it was Jonah’s fault. He must have done something wrong to make his G-d so mad. So they asked Jonah “what have you done to make your G-d so angry?”

“I am running away from something that G-d asked me to do. It is my fault this is happening. If you throw me into the sea the storm will stop.”

The men didn’t want to throw Jonah into the sea so they tried to row the best they could but the storm kept getting worse. So they threw Jonah off the ship. The storm slowly calmed down. The men on the boat realized that Jonah was monotheistic (which means believes in one G-d).

Then the captain and the crew looked out to the sea as a huge fish came and swallowed Jonah. G-d actually sent the fish to keep Jonah from drowning. Jonah stayed in the fish for three day and three nights.

Just think for a second what it would be like to be inside a fish. There are no windows and lots of strange things floating around that you can’t see because it’s so dark. Other than that I’m not sure what it would be like, but Jonah probably didn’t know if he would ever see daylight again.

While Jonah was inside the fish he prayed to g-d all the time. He asked G-d to forgive him for running away and also thanked G-d for not allowing him to drown.

After the third day G-d forgave Jonah and told the fish spit him out on dry land. Jonah was happy to be out of the fish, but boy, he needed a shower.

The G-d told Jonah again to go to Nineveh and tell the people to stop being bad. This time Jonah obeyed G-d and left for Nineveh.

When Jonah got to Nineveh he told the people what had happened to him and told them the order from G-d and in 40 days the city and everything in it would be destroyed. Jonah was surprised that the people of Nineveh listened to him and that they apologized to G-d.

Soon the king of Nineveh heard what was going on and ordered that everyone must listen to G-d and stop doing bad things. When G-d saw that they were trying to be good he felt love for them and did not destroy there city.

As Jonah left the city he was made that G-d did not punish them. He knew that G-d was a loving and that he didn’t want to destroy there land.

So Jonah went on a hill and sat. G-d saw Jonah and knew how he was feeling so he explained to Jonah that he loves everyone. He does not like to destroy people who are doing bad things. G-d would rather see us turn from our bad ways and do well again.