Jonah

1Chapter

God Calls and Jonah Runs

1The Lord spoke to Jonah son of Amittai: 2“Nineveh is a big city. I have heard about the many evil things the people are doing there. So go there and tell them to stop doing such evil things.”
3But Jonah tried to run away from the Lord. He went to Joppa and found a boat that was going to the faraway city of Tarshish. Jonah paid money for the trip and went on the boat. He wanted to travel with the people on this boat to Tarshish and run away from the Lord.

The Great Storm

4But the Lord brought a great storm on the sea. The wind made the sea very rough. The storm was very strong, and the boat was ready to break apart. 5The men wanted to make the boat lighter to stop it from sinking, so they began throwing the cargo into the sea. The sailors were very afraid. Each man began praying to his god. Jonah had gone down into the boat to lie down, and he went to sleep. 6The captain of the boat saw Jonah and said, “Wake up! Why are you sleeping? Pray to your god! Maybe your god will hear your prayer and save us!”

What Caused This Storm?

7Then the men said to each other, “We should throw lots to find out why this is happening to us.” So the men threw lots. The lots showed that the troubles came to them because of Jonah. 8Then the men said to Jonah, “It is your fault that this terrible thing is happening to us. Tell us, what have you done? What is your job? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?”
9Jonah said to them, “I am a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the land and the sea.”
10Jonah told the men he was running away from the Lord. The men became very afraid when they learned this. They asked Jonah, “What terrible thing did you do against your God?”
11The wind and the waves of the sea were becoming stronger and stronger. So the men said to Jonah, “What should we do to save ourselves? What should we do to you to make the sea calm?”
12Jonah said to the men, “I know I did wrong—that is why the storm came on the sea. So throw me into the sea, and the sea will become calm.”
13Instead, the men tried to row the ship back to the shore, but they couldn’t do it. The wind and the waves of the sea were too strong—and they were becoming stronger and stronger.

Jonah’s Punishment

14So the men cried to the Lord, “Lord, please don’t say we are guilty of killing an innocent man. Please don’t make us die for killing him. We know you are the Lord, and you will do whatever you want.”
15So the men threw Jonah into the sea. The storm stopped, and the sea became calm. 16When the men saw this, they began to fear and respect the Lord. They offered a sacrifice and made special promises to the Lord.
17When Jonah fell into the sea, the Lord chose a very big fish to swallow Jonah. He was in the stomach of the fish for three days and three nights.
2Chapter

Jonah’s Prayer

1While Jonah was in the stomach of the fish, he prayed to the Lord his God. He said,
2“I was in very bad trouble. I called to the Lord for help, and he answered me. I was deep in the grave. I cried to you, and you heard my voice.
3“You threw me into the sea. Your powerful waves splashed over me. I went down, down into the deep sea. The water was all around me.
4Then I thought, ‘Now I must go where you cannot see me,’ but I continued looking to your holy Temple for help.
5“The seawater closed over me. The water covered my mouth, and I could not breathe. I went down, down into the deep sea. Seaweed wrapped around my head.
6I was at the bottom of the sea, the place where the mountains begin. I thought I was locked in this prison forever, but the Lord my God took me out of my grave. God, you gave me life again!
7“My soul gave up all hope, but then I remembered the Lord. I prayed to you, and you heard my prayers in your holy Temple.
8“Some people worship useless idols, but those statues never help them.
9I will give sacrifices to you, and I will praise and thank you. I will make special promises to you, and I will do what I promise.” Salvation only comes from the Lord!
10Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out of its stomach onto the dry land.
3Chapter

God Calls and Jonah Obeys

1Then the Lord spoke to Jonah again and said, 2“Go to that big city Nineveh, and say what I tell you.”
3So Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh. It was a very large city. A person had to walk for three days to travel through it.
4Jonah went to the center of the city and began speaking to the people. He said, “After 40 days, Nineveh will be destroyed!”
5The people of Nineveh believed God. They decided to stop eating for a time to think about their sins. They put on special clothes to show they were sorry. All the people in the city did this, from the most important to the least important.
6When the king of Nineveh heard about this, he left his throne, removed his robe, put on special clothes to show that he was sorry, and sat in ashes. 7The king wrote a special message and sent it throughout the city: A command from the king and his great rulers: For a short time no person or animal should eat anything. No herd or flock will be allowed in the fields. Nothing living in Nineveh will eat or drink water. 8But every person and every animal must be covered with a special cloth to show they are sad. People must cry loudly to God. Everyone must change their life and stop doing bad things. 9Who knows? Maybe God will stop being angry and change his mind, and we will not be punished.
10God saw what the people did. He saw that they stopped doing evil. So God changed his mind and did not do what he planned. He did not punish the people.
4Chapter

God’s Mercy Makes Jonah Angry

1Jonah was not happy that God saved the city. Jonah became angry. 2He complained to the Lord and said, “Lord, I knew this would happen! I was in my own country, and you told me to come here. At that time I knew that you would forgive the people of this evil city, so I decided to run away to Tarshish. I knew that you are a kind God. I knew that you show mercy and don’t want to punish people. I knew that you are kind, and if these people stopped sinning, you would change your plans to destroy them. 3So now, Lord, just kill me. It is better for me to die than to live.”
4Then the Lord said, “Do you think it is right for you to be angry?”
5Jonah went out of the city to a place near the city on the east side. He made a shelter for himself and sat there in the shade, waiting to see what would happen to the city.

The Gourd Plant and the Worm

6The Lord made a gourd plant grow quickly over Jonah. This made a cool place for Jonah to sit and helped him to be more comfortable. He was very happy because of this plant.
7The next morning, God sent a worm to eat part of the plant. The worm began eating the plant, and the plant died.
8After the sun was high in the sky, God caused a hot east wind to blow. The sun became very hot on Jonah’s head, and he became very weak. He asked God to let him die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9But God said to Jonah, “Do you think it is right for you to be angry just because this plant died?” Jonah answered, “Yes, it is right for me to be angry! I am angry enough to die!”
10And the Lord said, “You did nothing for that plant. You did not make it grow. It grew up in the night, and the next day it died. And now you are sad about it. 11If you can get upset over a plant, surely I can feel sorry for a big city like Nineveh. There are many people and animals in that city. There are more than 120,000 people there who did not know they were doing wrong.”
Study
Chapter 1
ESV

Jonah’s Grateful Prayer. Jonah’s prayer (2:2b–9) is framed by an introduction (1:17–2:2a) and a conclusion (2:10), both of which mention the “fish.”

ESV

Jonah’s Commissioning and Flight. This episode records Jonah’s call to prophesy and his flight from that call. Two questions drive the plot: (1) What will happen to the Ninevites? and (2) What will happen to Jonah? (See diagram.)

ESV

Jonah prophesied prosperity for Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23–28). Jonah means “dove,” a symbol for Israel as silly and senseless (Hos. 7:11); Jonah will be true to his name. Son of Amittai means “son of my faithfulness”; Jonah will remain the object of God’s faithful love.

ESV

Nineveh sat on the east bank of the Tigris River about 220 miles (354 km) north of present-day Baghdad and over 500 miles (805 km) northeast of Israel. Great (Hb. gadol) is used 14 times in Jonah. Nineveh was an important (“great”) city (see 3:3). evil. As the esv footnote indicates, the same Hebrew term (Hb. ra‘ah; used 9 times in Jonah [see chart]) can mean “evil” or “disaster.” The Ninevites were evil, and they were in line for disaster.

CSB

It may seem unusual that a prophet of God, called to be his spokesman, would ever presume to run away from the Lord. The story of Jonah shows that the prophet had a good deal to learn about the extent of the Lord’s mercy; his narrow view of that mercy may be a clue to why he thought he could escape God. Perhaps he did not expect his presence to be easily encountered outside the land of Israel. God “made the sea and the dry land” (v. 9), but would he really dwell among people who were outside his covenant with Israel?

ESV

To Tarshish is repeated three times in this verse to underscore that Jonah is not going to Nineveh. Tarshish, an unknown locale associated with distant coastlands, was somewhere in the western Mediterranean—the opposite direction from Nineveh. From the presence of the LORD is repeated at the end of this verse to underscore Jonah’s purpose in going to Tarshish. Went down (twice in this verse; see also v. 5; 2:6) is also a euphemism for death (e.g., Gen. 37:35). The suggestion is that each step away from the presence of the Lord is one step closer to “going down” to death (see notes on Jonah 1:4–5; 2:6).

ESV

Jonah and the Pagan Sailors. This episode highlights Jonah’s encounter with pagan sailors and raises the question, Who fears the Lord—Jonah or the pagans? The key repeated word is “fear”: at the beginning and end the sailors “fear” (vv. 5, 16); in the middle Jonah claims to “fear” the Lord (v. 9) while the sailors actually fear (v. 10a).

ESV

Hurled is used four times in this episode (vv. 4, 5, 12, 15). Just as God hurled the great wind, the sailors hurled the cargo. cried out. The sailors pray, evidently believing that a divine being could come to their aid. had gone down. In contrast to the sailors, Jonah goes down below deck, taking yet another step closer to death (see note on v. 3).

ESV

Arise, call out echoes God’s commission in v. 2. Ironically, the Israelite prophet has to be summoned to prayer by a pagan sailor. not perish. “Perish” is repeated in v. 14; 3:9; 4:10. Ironically, a pagan, not Jonah, is concerned that people not perish.

ESV

cast lots. Casting lots was used in the ancient world to discern the divine will (e.g., Num. 26:55; Josh. 18:6). Israelites believed that God controlled the outcome (Prov. 16:33). Evil (Hb. ra‘ah) may here suggest “disaster” (see chart).

ESV

Hebrew is an ethnic term used to identify Israelites in international contexts (e.g., Gen. 40:15; Ex. 1:19; 1 Sam. 4:6). Jonah claims to fear the LORD, but his actions contradict his confession. God of heaven refers to the universal and supreme God (see Ezra 1:2; Neh. 2:20; Dan. 2:37). made the sea. Ironically, Jonah confesses to fear the God who controls the sea, which Jonah is crossing to escape from the presence of God (Jonah 1:3). The sailors who were “afraid” (v. 5) are now exceedingly afraid.

ESV

hurl. See note on vv. 4–5. rowed hard. It would have been natural for these pagans to hurl Jonah overboard immediately, but they did not. The sea grew more and more tempestuous, for God was not ready to have Jonah delivered to dry land.

ESV

called out. Whereas each of the sailors had prayed to his god (v. 5), they now pray to the LORD. The pagan sailors, not Jonah, are concerned that people not perish (see note on v. 6). Have done as it pleased you echoes the liturgical language of Ps. 115:3 and 135:6, and is thus the sailors’ confession of faith in the absolute sovereignty of God. The sailors’ actions are in harmony with God’s: as God had hurled the wind onto the sea (see note on Jonah 1:4–5) to start the storm, the sailors now hurl Jonah to stop the storm (see v. 12).

ESV

feared the LORD exceedingly. What started as a general fear (v. 5) grew into an intense fear (v. 10) and matured into the fear—that is, the reverent worship—of the Lord (v. 16). sacrifice … vows. The exact response expected from people who fear the Lord (2 Kings 17:32–36; Ps. 22:5; 61:5; 76:11).

CSB

Was Jonah swallowed by a fish or a whale? Traditionally dag gadol has been translated “a whale” (e.g., Mt 12:40, KJV). Ancient taxonomy of the animal kingdom did not follow the modern Linnaean system, so perhaps any swimming sea creature might be considered a “fish.” The author of Jonah was not concerned with phylogenic distinctions but with the Lord’s involvement in Jonah’s life. When Jesus speaks of the “huge fish” (Mt 12:40), the text uses the same word found in the Septuagint at Jnh 1:17. If Jesus was speaking Aramaic, or possibly Hebrew, when he made his pronouncement, Matthew—or the source he was using—simply chose the Greek word already available to render Jesus’s words into Greek. Whether it was a fish or a whale in which Jonah was kept alive is less important than the fact that God provided a miraculous means to redirect the wayward prophet to his original task, preaching repentance to Nineveh. God’s plans will not be thwarted by the schemes disobedient people devise to get around them.

ESV

appointed. This is the first of four uses of “appoint” that underscore God’s sovereign control over creation (cf. 4:6–8). Fish (Hb. dag) is not limited to what is called “fish” today (generally cold-blooded vertebrate sea creatures with fins and gills) but is a general word for an aquatic beast, which cannot be identified further. However, a large whale such as a sperm whale could easily swallow a man whole. three days and three nights. Though this may be a symbolic expression for a time of dying and rising (cf. Hos. 6:2), it more likely describes the actual number of days, or parts of three days, according to accepted reckoning of days at that time (cf. 1 Sam. 30:12; 2 Kings 20:5, 8). In either case it has associations with return from death or near-death—which perhaps is why Jesus likened the time between his own death and resurrection to Jonah’s time in the fish (Matt. 12:40).