Jonah

1Chapter

Jonah’s Flight

1The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.” 3Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.
4But the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea, and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. 5The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep.
6The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and we won’t perish.”
7“Come on!” the sailors said to each other. “Let’s cast lots. Then we’ll know who is to blame for this trouble we’re in.” So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah. 8Then they said to him, “Tell us who is to blame for this trouble we’re in. What is your business, and where are you from? What is your country, and what people are you from?”
9He answered them, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord’s presence because he had told them. 11So they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us?” For the sea was getting worse and worse.
12He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it will calm down for you, for I know that I’m to blame for this great storm that is against you.” 13Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn’t because the sea was raging against them more and more.
14So they called out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.” 15Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16The men were seized by great fear of the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2Chapter

Jonah’s Prayer

1Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish:
2I called to the Lord in my distress, and he answered me. I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol; you heard my voice. 3When you threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, the current overcame me. All your breakers and your billows swept over me. 4And I said, “I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look once more toward your holy temple.” 5The water engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6I sank to the foundations of the mountains, the earth’s gates shut behind me forever! Then you raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God! 7As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple. 8Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love, 9but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
10Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
3Chapter

Jonah’s Preaching

1The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.” 3Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk. 4Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!” 5Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.
6When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. 8Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. 9Who knows? God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.
10God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways —so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.
4Chapter

Jonah’s Anger

1Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. 2He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. 3And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6Then the Lord God appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble. Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. 7When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered.
8As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head so much that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”
9Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “Yes, it’s right!” he replied. “I’m angry enough to die!”
10And the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”
Study
Chapter 4
ESV

Jonah’s Angry Prayer. The sixth episode parallels the third (1:17–2:10) and focuses on Jonah’s self-centeredness and hypocrisy. Both episodes have the same structure: (1) Jonah “prayed to the LORD” (1:17–2:1a; 4:1–2a); (2) Jonah’s prayer (2:1b–9; 4:2b–3); and (3) “the LORD spoke/said” (2:10; 4:4).

ESV

it displeased Jonah exceedingly (cf. the esv footnote, “it was exceedingly evil to Jonah”). In the previous episode (see 3:10) the pagans got rid of their “evil” and God got rid of the “disaster” he had threatened (both Hb. ra‘ah). The pagans are in harmony with God, but Jonah is not, as he alone is now characterized by “displeasure” (or “evil”; Hb. ra‘ah).

ESV

This is Jonah’s second prayer; the repetition of prayed to the LORD (see 2:1) invites the reader to compare the two. gracious God … relenting from disaster. These same words occur in Joel 2:13 as the basis for hope (see Ex. 34:6–7; Neh. 9:17; Ps. 145:8). Ironically, this standard confession of the compassionate character of God is the root of Jonah’s anger. Steadfast love, when extended to Jonah, filled him with thanksgiving (Jonah 2:8), but when extended to the Ninevites, filled him with anger.

ESV

My life translates Hebrew napshi (“my soul”), and to live translates Hebrew khayyay (“my life”). These two expressions occur in Jonah’s first prayer, where he is grateful that his “life” was brought up from the pit (2:6) and his fainting “life/soul” was revived (2:7). Ironically, when God extends the same mercy to the Ninevites, Jonah wishes his “life” and “soul” to be taken.

ESV

Jonah’s Lesson about Compassion. The seventh and final episode has no parallel and thus stands out as the climax of the story.

ESV

Jonah went out … till he should see. Apparently, Jonah hopes that God still will not relent but will destroy the city after all. sat under it in the shade. Jonah is hot—both emotionally (i.e., angry) and physically.

ESV

the LORD God appointed. This is the second use of the verb “appoint” (see 1:17). The kind of plant appointed is not known; the term (Hb. qiqayon) occurs nowhere else in the Bible, but a castor oil plant or a gourd plant, both of which have large leaves, are the most common suggestions. Discomfort (or “evil,” Hb. ra‘ah; see esv footnote and note on 1:2) refers both to Jonah’s outer “discomfort” and to his inner “evil.” Jonah was exceedingly glad. The grammar of this phrase is identical to that at the beginning of 4:1 (“It displeased Jonah exceedingly”) and underscores the contrast between Jonah’s anger at the salvation of the Ninevites and his joy at his own salvation.

ESV

God appointed a worm … God appointed a scorching east wind. These are the third and fourth uses of the verb “appoint” (see note on v. 6). The “east wind” is a drying wind from the desert.

ESV

angry for the plant. As God had questioned the justice of Jonah’s anger over the salvation of the Ninevites (v. 4), he now questions the justice of Jonah’s anger over the destruction of the plant.

ESV

perished. Finally Jonah expresses concern over something perishing (see note on 3:9), but ironically it is a plant, not the 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their left, an idiom for being morally and spiritually unaware, that probably refers to the entire population. Jonah’s compassion for the plant explains the rather odd expression that translates the final words in the Hebrew text, and also much cattle. The ironic question raised by these words is: If Jonah will not allow God to have compassion on Nineveh for the sake of the 120,000 people whom God created and cares for, will Jonah not allow God to have compassion on Nineveh for the sake of the animals, since after all, Jonah was willing to have compassion on a plant? The question is left unanswered so that the readers of the book may answer it for themselves.