Passage

Jonah pays the fare

Source and translation

World English Bible, Protestant Edition · Public domain · en

³But Jonah rose up 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 its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah 1:3World English Bible, Protestant Edition

The scene

Jonah finds a ship in Joppa, pays its fare and boards it for Tarshish.

To understand

The command immediately before this journey names Nineveh as his destination. The narrator explicitly calls the voyage a flight from the LORD; the fare and boarding describe how Jonah carries it out.

A question

How does the destination of Jonah’s voyage differ from the destination in the command?