Jonah

Concern for the Salvation of the Gentiles

Most of us learn the story of Jonah and the whale while we are still very young. Indeed, the story of Jonah is fascinating, not only for youngsters but also for all ages. Jonah’s story is full of irony and exciting events. Unlike Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, when Jonah is called by God to prophesy, at first he refuses to obey and instead flees from God. Only after he almost dies in the sea does he reconsider and obey. Furthermore, in general the people of Israel ignore the message of the prophets. The people don’t repent, and thus judgment comes on them (the Assyrian invasion and then the Babylonian invasion). In the book of Jonah, by contrast, the audience (the pagan Ninevites!) responds to the prophetic message, repenting and asking God to spare them. So, in effect, Jonah is about the only prophet who is truly successful and who brings about a repentant attitude in his audience. Ironically, he doesn’t like it, and he gets angry about it, only to be rebuked by God. In the end, besides being a book about salvation for all people, the book of Jonah stands as a foil for the rest of the prophetic books; what happens in pagan Nineveh is what should have happened in Jerusalem, but didn’t.

The book of Jonah is also very different from the other prophetic books regarding literary style. Most of Jonah is composed of narrative, instead of preached poetic oracles as in the other prophetic books.

Who Is Jonah?

The book of Jonah does not tie the prophet’s message to a specific king or historical setting. However, the book does identify the prophet as “Jonah, son of Amittai,” a prophet who is also mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25. From the reference in 2 Kings 14 we can clearly date Jonah to the reign of Jeroboam II (786–746 BC), thus making him contemporary with Hosea and Amos. The reference in 2 Kings 14:25 also tells us Jonah was a prophet from Gath Hepher (a town on the eastern border of the territory of Zebulun) who had predicted that Jeroboam II would successfully expand the boundaries of Israel to include Syria (Aram) in the north and to extend down to the Red Sea in the south.

What Is the Setting for Jonah?

During the reign of Jeroboam II (786–746 BC) the nation of Israel was fairly strong and prosperous. As mentioned above, Israel had subdued Syria (Aram) to the north and Israelite hegemony extended right up to the borders of Assyria. In the generation following Jeroboam II, the Assyrians will rise to power and become the five-hundred-pound gorilla of the ancient Near East, subduing just about every city and nation in the region. During the time of Jonah, however, the Assyrians are somewhat unstable and relatively weak. Ironically they are probably no stronger than Israel, a nation they will totally crush later in the eighth century. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Even by the time of Jonah, the Assyrians had achieved a reputation of being brutal and vicious warriors. People feared the Assyrians, and no one liked them.

The cities of the book of Jonah

What Is at the Heart of the Book of Jonah?

Jonah is a book about obedience, illustrating how foolish it is to refuse to obey God or to try to flee from God and his calling. Jonah is also a book about compassion and concern for one’s enemies or for those who are merely different. God had compassion on the Assyrians in Nineveh, and he rebukes Jonah for his lack of concern over their salvation. Jonah is also a book that underscores how serious and unthinkable it was for the Israelites back in Jerusalem to ignore the prophetic call to repent and return to God. The repentant actions of the Assyrians in Nineveh, from the king down to the lowest peasant (and even the cows!), lead to their deliverance, in contrast to the obstinate, hostile, and unrepentant attitude of the kings and people back in Israel and Judah, which results in foreign invasion and judgment.

The book of Jonah breaks down neatly into two parallel episodes:

• Jonah, the Sailors, and Deliverance (1–2)
• Jonah, the Ninevites, and Deliverance (3–4)

What Makes Jonah Interesting and Unique?

• Jonah is very different from the other prophets (he disobeys God, his audience listens to him, he pouts when people are saved, etc.).
• Jonah is swallowed by a large fish (or perhaps a serpent?), which symbolizes both deliverance and judgment.
• The repentance of the city of Nineveh is so complete that even the cows fast and wear sackcloth. God mentions his concern for the cows in 4:11 (sarcastically?).
• The events of Jonah 1–2 are paralleled by the events of Jonah 3–4.
• Jonah’s spoken message (only one verse long) is directed to the Ninevites, but the literary message is probably directed to Israel.

The Size of Nineveh

In Jonah 1:2 God refers to Nineveh as a “great city.” Jonah 3:3 states that “Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.” Translating literally from the Hebrew, this verse reads, “Nineveh was a great city to God, a going of three days.” Scholars and translators have been puzzled for years over how to translate the phrase, “a going of three days.” In the past, many assumed this referred to how big Nineveh was; that is, it took someone three days to walk across it. The problem with this understanding is that none of the cities in the ancient Near East were big enough to require three days to walk across. Furthermore, ancient Nineveh has been excavated, and the time required to walk across the site is a few hours (at most) and not three days. Recently several scholars have argued that “a going of three days” has nothing to do with the physical size of the city, but rather refers to the status of the city in regard to the protocol required for official visits. That is, if a king sent an emissary to Nineveh, the status of the city required the emissary to stay there for three days.

What Is Jonah’s Message?

Jonah, the Sailors, and Deliverance (1–2)

In the opening verses God tells the prophet Jonah to go and preach against the city of Nineveh. Surprisingly, instead of obeying, Jonah flees from God and takes a boat headed for Tarshish, in the opposite direction. Nineveh is located to the north and east of Israel, while Tarshish (probably a port city on the coast of Spain) is at the other end of the known world, as far away from Nineveh as one could get.

You probably know the story well. God hurls a tremendous storm against the boat. What was Jonah thinking? Was he going to run from God? Did he think the God of Israel was a regional deity with no power over the sea? Or that God would perhaps forget about him? The sailors try frantically, yet unsuccessfully, to row back to land. Eventually they confront Jonah and discover he is the cause of this fearsome storm. Reluctantly they throw Jonah into the sea, and the storm ceases immediately, causing the sailors to fear God and to offer sacrifices to him.

Meanwhile a “great fish” swallows Jonah. The Hebrew Bible calls this creature a “great fish,” and we immediately assume it must be a whale. The early Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), however, translates this with a Greek word that means “sea monster” or “sea serpent,” and in the artwork of the early church this animal is regularly portrayed as a huge sea serpent/monster. Jonah spends three days and three nights in this creature (either a whale or a sea monster). In Jonah 2 the prophet cries out to God from within the creature. In this regard Jonah 2 is very similar to some of the Psalms. God hears Jonah’s cry, and the creature spits him up onto dry land.

Many people have tried to explain that this event could really have happened; that is, they try to demonstrate that it is possible to be swallowed by a whale and to survive. Some writers even cite a story of a modern (nineteenth century AD) sailor who supposedly did survive after being swallowed by a whale. Yet there is no evidence that the story of this sailor ever actually happened. Furthermore, we suspect that writers who cite that story are missing the point. This event—and other miraculous actions by God in the Bible—are by definition unusual, implausible, even impossible events. That is the nature of divine miracles. We miss the point of the miracle if we try to prove that “it really could have happened.” No, without the divine intervention of God, it couldn’t have happened. That’s what miracles are.

The book of Jonah was popular among the early Christians and scenes from Jonah appear frequently in the tombs of early Christians who were buried in the catacombs near Rome. The sarcophagus below depicts several scenes from Jonah’s life. Note, however, that since early Greek and Latin translations of Jonah used a word for “fish” that implied a “sea monster” or “serpent,” portrayals such as this depict the “fish” as looking like a sea monster (see bottom of the sarcophagus).

Jonah, the Ninevites, and Deliverance (3–4)

After the storm and fish/creature experience, Jonah is now more obedient, and he finally goes to Nineveh and preaches a very brief message of coming judgment: “forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” Incredibly, and in strong contrast to what did not happen back in Israel and Judah, the Ninevites, from the greatest to the least, believe God and repent. The king even calls for a national time of fasting and repenting for all his people (and even the animals!). When God sees that the Assyrians have truly repented (that is, their actions have changed), he has compassion on them, and he cancels the coming imminent judgment.

At this point Jonah gets angry and complains to God (with some irony) that he knew God was gracious and compassionate, and that was why he did not want to preach to the Ninevites (Jonah 4:1–2). Like a pouting child, Jonah then asks God to take his life. God, of course, does not take Jonah’s life, and instead gives him a mild rebuke. Jonah then goes outside the city to sit and wait to see what would happen. Is he ignoring the “three-day stay” requirement? What does he think will happen? Is he still expecting God to destroy the city? Does he think that his pouting will change God’s mind?

Surprisingly, God provides another miracle. This time he does not send a great fish/creature to deliver Jonah, but rather a plant, which grows up miraculously and provides Jonah with shade from the scorching sun. However, on the next day a worm eats the plant, and it dies. Jonah then complains again to God. At this point God seems to get a little impatient with Jonah, pointing out that Jonah was so concerned over the plant (i.e., his own well-being) but that he had no concern for the entire city of Nineveh, a city with 120,000 people (not to mention the cows!). God, however, is concerned with these people and will save them when they repent as they did.

Note the many parallels between the story in Jonah 1–2 and the story in Jonah 3–4. In the first story Jonah is disobedient, but ends up praising God for his own deliverance. In the second story Jonah is obedient, but ends up criticizing God for the deliverance of others. Likewise the boat, the sailors, the captain, and the fish/creature of the first story parallel the city of Nineveh, the people, the king, and the plant of the second story.

An ancient ship anchor.

So What? Applying Jonah to Our Lives Today

One of the obvious applications to make from the book of Jonah is that if God tells us to do something or to go somewhere, we should be obedient. If God calls us into a specific work or ministry, we are foolish if we think we can run away from him and the task he has called us to.

Another central lesson for us today is to realize that God’s compassion is boundless, and that he loves everybody (even the cruel and violent Assyrians!). One of the major themes running throughout the Bible is that God saves the most unlikely people (the Canaanite Rahab, the Moabite Ruth, and the entire city of Assyrian Ninevites).

Likewise, the story of Jonah is an indictment against us if we are more concerned with our own well-being than with the plight of those who are lost. To use the plant analogy in Jonah 4, are we more concerned about our own lawn dying than our neighbors perishing?

Our Favorite Verse in Jonah

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. (3:10)