Passage

Jonah boarded a ship to flee

Source and translation

World English Bible, Protestant Edition · Public domain · en

¹Now the LORD’s word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
²“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
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 1:1–3World English Bible, Protestant Edition

The scene

Jonah was told to go to Nineveh. He went to the port and paid for passage to Tarshish.

To understand

The narrator says twice that Jonah was fleeing from the LORD's presence. The trip is not presented as a mistake or a distraction.

A question

Why does the story repeat what Jonah was fleeing from?