Jonah
Name and Location in Canon
The book of Jonah is a story about a prophet rather than a collection of his prophecies, as we find in the other prophetical books. It is the fifth of the Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, where its placement between Obadiah and Micah reflects midrashic traditions concerning the dating of Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah. The Septuagint places Jonah as the sixth of the twelve Minor Prophets and Nahum as the seventh, an arrangement also reflected in 2 Esd 1.38–40.
Jonah son of Amittai is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible only in 2 Kings 14.25 as a prophet who prophesied in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the days of King Jeroboam II in the mid-eighth century bce. The author of the book likely chose Jonah as his protagonist since attributing the events to a prophet mentioned in Israel's history granted his work authenticity, and because the event described in Kings deals with God's compassion and mercy, the central theme of the book of Jonah: in Kings the Northern Kingdom is spared, while in Jonah, the Assyrian Empire, its enemy, is forgiven.
Structure
The book is in two parts, each with three scenes:
| Chs 1–2 | God's first call to Jonah |
| 1.1–3 | Jonah's commission and attempt to flee |
| 1.4–16 | The moral: one cannot flee from God |
| 2.1–11 | Jonah, in the fish, prays and is saved |
| Chs 3–4 | God's second call to Jonah |
| 3.1–4 | Jonah's mission and its completion |
| 3.5–10 | The repentance of Nineveh and God's forgiveness |
| 4.1–11 | Jonah's prayer-complaint, and the moral he learns from God |
The two parts are symmetrical: the opening command assigning both missions is almost identical; the formulation of Jonah's flight and that of the fulfillment of the second mission open with the same words, “Jonah set out” (1.3; 3.3); both second scenes feature foreigners who are depicted favorably in contrast to Jonah; similar phrasing is used when the ship captain and the king of Nineveh express their belief in God when they are in danger, though unsure that their belief will save them (1.6; 3.6–9); Jonah prays to God in both final scenes: in 2.2 in order to save himself, and in 4.2–3 to express frustration over God's saving the people of Nineveh.
Authorship and Date
The author of the book of Jonah is unknown. Its language places it in the Second Temple period, its vocabulary and syntax corresponding with those of the Bible's later books, Aramaic sources, and rabbinic literature. The book was apparently written after the destruction of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612 bce, since it refers to that city in the past tense (3.3), and the king is not called the “king of Assyria” but the “king of Nineveh” (3.6), an inappropriate title. The book should be dated no later than the third century bce.
A late date is also suggested by Jonah's use of earlier biblical texts. For example, in the story of the flood, the earth is described as being “filled with violence” (Gen 6.11,13), while in Jonah, the king of Nineveh expresses the hope that repentance will cause the people to “turn from . . . the violence that is in their hands” (3.8). In the flood story, God's regret over creating humankind causes God to want now to destroy it (Gen 6.6), while in Jonah, God regrets the impulse to destroy the Ninevites (Jon 3.10). Similarly, the evil of the Ninevites and their punishment is like that of the inhabitants of Sodom (1.2; cf. Gen 18.20), while Jonah appears as Abraham's opposite. In the story of Sodom, Abraham pleads with God to save the city for the sake of the few righteous people without expecting the city's repentance (Gen 18.22–33). Jonah, in contrast, flees, refusing to warn the Ninevites lest they repent and be saved. Jonah is also depicted as the opposite of Abraham's nephew Lot, who warned his sons-in-law of imminent destruction until being taken from Sodom by angels; Jonah's proclamation, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (3.4) is recited unwillingly, and then he even leaves the city to watch events unfold with complete lack of interest (4.5). Jonah is also contrasted with Moses, who was willing to die if God did not forgive the Israelites after they made the golden calf (Ex 32). Jonah's actions are also patterned after those of Elijah, who fled from Jezebel and his mission and asked to die (1 Kings 19). Jonah 4.2 appears to quote God's attributes (Ex 34.6–7) as they are presented in Joel 2.13. Jeremiah's prophecies (Jer 26.3; 36.7) echo in the words of the king of Nineveh who, with Jonah behaving as an anti-prophet, himself assumes the role of prophet and rouses his people to repent (3.8). He also used Ps 107.23–32 to shape ch 1.
Interpretation
Jonah is not a historical book in the sense of recalling events that actually occurred; its characters and setting provide the means for the writer to convey his message. Part of that message concerns the power of repentance. Repentance, however, is not the book's central theme: if it were, the first three chapters would suffice, and Jonah's flight would be irrelevant. Instead, the book of Jonah concerns the essence of prophecy. Jonah knows God's attributes, that he is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing” (4.2). He knows that God will relent from destroying Nineveh and thus he flees, certain that his prophecy of destruction will be proven false. Jonah represents the concept, expressed explicitly in Deut 18.21–22, that the single proof for a prophecy's truth is its realization. God seeks to teach Jonah values more lofty than a prophecy's realization or a prophet's reliability—the saving of God's creation when found worthy. The book therefore illustrates the position—voiced openly in Jer 28.9—that although a prophecy of peace must be fulfilled in order to prove that its deliverer is a true prophet, a prophecy of destruction is meant, from the outset, to educate and bring repentance. This holds true even for foreign nations: the prophecy of doom is a conditional prophecy that will come true only in the absence of repentance (Jer 18.7–8).
The book of Jonah, unlike other prophetic writings, uses humor or irony to make its point. Exaggerated behavior (running away from God, 1.3); inappropriate actions (sleeping through a violent storm, 1.5); outlandish situations (offering a prayer of thanksgiving from inside a fish's belly, 2.1); ludicrous commands (animals must fast and wear sackcloth, 3.7–8); and emotions either contrary to expectation (anger at mercy, 4.1–2) or out of proportion (being angry enough to die because a plant has withered, 4.9) appear throughout the story.
The book has a role disproportionate to its size within religious tradition. Judaism, picking up on its theme of repentance, reads it liturgically on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is cited several times in the New Testament, where Jonah prefigures Jesus who spent “three days and three nights . . . in the heart of the earth” (Mt 12.40).
Yair Zakovitch
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2“Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” 3But Jonah set out 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 his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. 5Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”
7The sailorsa said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9“I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.
11Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.” 13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17bBut the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God
from the belly of the fish, 2saying,
“I called to the Lord out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3You cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
4Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
howa shall I look again
upon your holy temple?’
5The waters closed in over me;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped around my head
6at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the Pit,
O Lord my God.
7As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered the Lord;
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8Those who worship vain idols
forsake their true loyalty.
9But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”
10Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2“Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”
10When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
4 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 5Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
6The Lord God appointed a bush,a and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” 10Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”