The Command and the Flight (1:1-3):

1:1–3 The NIV has omitted several rhetorical devices in these first three verses that are significant for an understanding of Jonah. Verse 1:1 begins with way e hî, which may be translated, “Now it came to pass,” or simply “Now.” The word is a sure indication that what follows is a story or narrative (cf. MT of Josh. 1:1; Judg. 1:1).

Verse 2 begins with “arise” (RSV; NIV: go; qûm), and this verb is repeated at the beginning of verse 3: “But Jonah rose (qûm) to flee to Tarshish” (RSV). He obeys the Lord’s command to arise but goes in the opposite direction from Nineveh.

Verse 3 emphasizes that Jonah’s disobedience is a descent from the Lord by repeating the verb yārad, “to go down”: “And he went down to Joppa . . . and he went down on it (the ship) to go wit…