From the recording Blue Ridge Mountain Time: Songs from Wildacres
(2015): prompt: repeat words and sounds. joining with me are Lise Uyanik Ebel, Roberta Schultz, and Ruth Wakefield.
Lyrics
Jonah went sailing with the sailors to Tarshish
Sailing on the deep blue sea
Jonah was a man who was running
Running from the Lord
Thought he’d take a ship to Tarshish
In the night he snuck aboard
Didn’t want to tell the people of Nineveh
If they wanted to be saved
They should lay down their idols made of clay
And change their evil ways
They were not gone but a day
I’m sure it was not two
The sky began to darken
The sea began to brew
The crew began to tremble
The captain shook his hand
The storm is but a messenger
God’s a-looking for a man
Up spoke Jonah from the hold
If a sacrifice, you must give
Ain’t no hiding from the Lord
Toss me over and you will live
Jonah was given to the sea
The sea she took him in
But from the depths came a mighty whale
Swam up and swallowed him
The sun came out and began to shine
The wind began to wane
The waves no longer rocked and rolled – they went back from where they came
Jonah stayed in the belly of the whale
Three days and not one more
Spat out, he walked to Nineveh
And done what he should’a before