Jonah told the sailors to pick him up and throw him into the sea so it would become calm for them. He said he knew the great tempest was because of him Jonah 1:12. The sea grew more and more tempestuous before they did it Jonah 1:11.
In Jonah 1:11–12 the sailors, facing a storm that keeps getting worse, ask Jonah what they should do to him so the sea will settle down. Jonah answers with a direct and costly remedy: they should pick him up and throw him into the sea. This moment comes after Jonah has been identified as connected to the crisis at sea: the crew has questioned him and learned he is running from his God (earlier in the chapter), and the storm has not eased. The narrative now shifts from discovering the problem to deciding what to do about it.
The passage presents a worsening crisis at sea and a practical question: the sailors ask Jonah what they should do to him so the sea becomes calm for them (verse 11). Jonah answers with a specific remedy—throw him into the sea—and he links that action to a promised outcome: the sea will calm for the sailors (verse 12).
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Jonah 1:12, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
12He said to them, "Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great tempest is on you."