Jonah

VIEW:43 DATA:01-04-2020
a dove; he that oppresses; destroyer
(same as Jonas)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


JONAH
1. The man Jonah.—Jonah (‘dove’) is found in the Bible as the name of only one person, the Israelitish prophet of 2Ki_14:25 and the Book of Jonah. All that is really known about him is found in those two sources. According to both, he was the son of Amittai (LXX [Note: Septuagint.] and Vulg. [Note: Vulgate.] A mathi), and the former connects him with Gath-hepher, a place named in Jos_19:13, in the territory of Zebulun, now probably represented by el-Meshhed, 2½ miles to the E. of Sepphoris, and not far from Kefr Kennâ and Nazareth, in the neighbourhood of which is a grave of Nebi Yûnus or Yûnis. If this identification is right, Jonah was not only Israelitish in the narrower sense, but Galiæan. He seems to have lived and worked in the latter part of the 9th cent. b.c. or in the earlier part of the 8th. His one prediction, recorded in Kings, of the extension of the kingdom of Samaria from the Orontes to the Dead Sea, is said to have been fulfilled in the reign of Jeroboam ii. (b.c. 790 to 749 or 782–741). It has generally been inferred that the prediction was also uttered in that reign, but the inference is uncertain. It may have been delivered under Jehoash (b.c. 802–790 or 798–782), or even under Jehoahaz (815–802 or 798). Still, Jonah may be reasonably regarded as to some extent a contemporary of Jeroboam ii. There is no mention in Kings of any connexion of Jonah with Assyria, but it is quite possible that the memory of a visit to Nineveh was preserved by tradition or in some lost historical work. From b.c. 782–745, Assyria was comparatively weak, and was governed by relatively insignificant kings.
That the Jonah of Kings is identical with the Jonah of the book was questioned by Winckler in 1900, but the objection was withdrawn in 1903. The identification of Jonah with the son of the widow of Zarephath, which is mentioned by Jerome, and other assertions of Jewish origin, have no historical value.
2. Book of Jonah
(1) Analysis
Jonah, the son of Amittai, is commanded by Jahweh to go to Nineveh and announce there impending judgment (Jon_1:1 f.). For a reason not mentioned until near the end of the book (Jon_4:2 f.)—the fear that Jahweh will repent of His purpose, and spare the Ninevites—he refuses to obey, and in order to escape from. Jahweh’s immediate jurisdiction goes down to Joppa, and books himself in a ship manned by heathen, almost certainly Phœnicians, for Tarshish, probably the Phœnician colony in the S. W. of Spain, called by the Greeks Tartessus, and now represented by Cadiz and the country round (Jon_1:3 f.). When a violent storm comes on, and the prayers of the mariners to their gods are of no avail, they conclude that there is some one on board who has offended some deity, and cast lots to discover the culprit. The lot falls on Jonah (Jon_1:4-7), who acknowledges his guilt and advises them to cast him overboard (Jon_1:8-12). After making futile efforts to bring the vessel to land (Jon_1:13), the sailors reluctantly cast him into the sea, with the result that the storm at once subsides and the wondering heathen adore the God of the Hebrews (Jon_1:14-16). Jonah is swallowed by a fish appointed for the purpose by J″ [Note: Jahweh.] , and remains in its belly 3 days and 3 nights (Jon_1:17), during which time he prays (Jon_2:1). His prayer, which fills the greater part of the chapter, is rather a psalm of praise (Jon_2:2-9). He is then cast by the fish on the land at a place not specified (Jon_2:10), is commanded to discharge the neglected duty, goes to Nineveh and delivers his message over a third of the city (Jon_3:1-4). King and people repent, and show their repentance in a public fast (which includes even the domestic animals), and pray (Jon_3:5-9). Their penitence and prayer are accepted, to the prophet’s disgust (Jon_3:10 to Jon_4:4). As he sulks in a booth outside the city, waiting to see the issue, a remarkable series of experiences is arranged for his instruction (Jon_4:5-8): the shooting up of a castor-oil plant (or, as some think, a bottle-gourd) appointed by Jahweh, which delights him by its welcome shade; the killing of the plant by a worm, also appointed by Jahweh; and the springing up of a hot wind which also blows by Divine appointment, so that the now unshaded prophet is so tormented by the heat, that, like Elijah (1Ki_19:4), he longs for death. When he still sulks, it is pointed out to him that if he, a man, cares for the plant which sprang up and perished so quickly, and which was in no way the product of his toil, how much more must God care for the great city, which has in it so many thousands of little children and much cattle (Jon_4:9-11).
(2) Integrity.—Most recent critics ascribe 1, Jon_2:1-10; Jon_2:3-4, with the exception of a few glosses, to one writer. About the hymn or psalm in Jon_2:2-9 there is diversity of opinion. There are three views: (1) that it is by the same writer (G. A. Smith); (2) that it was used by him but not written by him (Baudissin); (3) that it was inserted by an editor who missed the prayer referred to in Jon_2:1 (Nowack, Marti, Cheyne, Kautzsch, and perhaps Horton). The last view is on the whole the most probable, for the following among other reasons. (a) The psalm fits in with the experience of a ship-wrecked mariner who has reached the shore, rather than with the situation ascribed to Jonah (Jon_2:3-6); (b) it has been aptly described as ‘a cento of passages from the psalms’ (there are echoes of passages in Psa_3:1-8; Psa_18:1-50; Psa_30:1-12; Psa_31:1-24; Psa_42:1-11; Psa_50:1-23; Psa_116:1-19; Psa_120:1-7; Psa_142:1-7), which implies that the writer had a considerable part of our present Psalter before him, and so points to the study rather than the belly of a fish.
(3) Date and Authorship.—The book used to be regarded as Jonah’s composition, but that belief is now generally abandoned except in the Roman Catholic Church. Since Nineveh is clearly referred to as no longer standing: ‘Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city’ (Jon_3:3), the terminus a quo cannot be placed earlier than about b.c. 600 (fall of Nineveh b.c. 606). The terminus ad quem is fixed by the mention of the Twelve Prophets in Sirach (Sir_49:10), c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 200. The date therefore lies between 600 and 200. For closer definition the following facts are helpful. The anonymous reference to the Assyrian king, and perhaps the description of him as ‘the king of Nineveh’ (Jon_3:6), suggests a considerable interval between Assyrian times and the composition of the book. The Heb. is distinctly late. There are several indications of Aramaic influence: sephînâh ‘ship’—a word common to Aramaic and Arabic, found here only in the OT; shâthaq ‘be calm’; ta‘am ‘decree’; hith‘ashshçth in the sense of ‘think’; minnâh ‘prepare,’ ‘appoint,’ etc. Had it been possible to assign the book to the 8th or the 9th cent. b.c., these phenomena might have been accounted for on the assumption of Aramaic influence on a Galilæan dialect, but as that date is out of the question, they point to a much later period, the 4th or 5th cent. (König, Driver, E. Kautzsch, Budde, Cheyne), c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 300 (Marti). Cheyne puts the psalm as late as the prayer in the appendix to Sirach. It has been suggested that the book is an extract from a larger work, e.g. the ‘commentary of the book of the kings’ referred to in 2Ch_24:27, as it begins: ‘Now (Heb. wa-) the word of the Lord came to Jonah’; but other historical Heb. writings begin in the same abrupt manner.
(4) Interpretation.—The ancient Jews seem to have regarded the book as historical (3Ma_6:8, Tob_14:4-8; Jos. [Note: Josephus.] Ant. IX. x. 2), and were followed by Christian interpreters. Modern scholars are greatly divided. Archdeacon Perowne, J. Kennedy, and Clay Trumbull have defended the old view. Kleinert, König, C. H. H. Wright, G. A. Smith, and Cheyne treat the book as an allegory of the fortunes of the people. Jonah, ‘the dove,’ represents Israel. Jonah the prophet stands for Israel, which was to prophesy amongst the nations. The sea figures the destruction which repeatedly fell on Israel. Cheyne supplements the symbolical key by the mythological. The fish (that is the dragon, the subterranean sea) refers to Babylon, which swallowed Israel, not to destroy it but to give room for repentance; and the link between Jonah and the original myth is found in Jer_51:34-44. E. Kautzsch, Driver, Nowack, and Marti see in the story a didactic narrative founded on an ancient tradition.
(5) Teaching.—The prominence given by Christian expositors to the incident of the fish has tended to obscure the chief aim of the writing—to protest against the narrowness of thought and sympathy which prevailed among the Jews of the time, and was daily growing in intensity. Whoever the author was, he had higher thoughts about God than most of his contemporaries, perhaps it may even be said than any other of the writers of the OT, and entertained more charitable feelings towards the Gentile world than most of his people. The God of Israel, he believed, cared for all men. Penitent Gentiles, and many in Gentile circles, were ready to repent if only they were taught; could obtain pardon as readily as penitent Jews. Nay, Jahweb sought their repentance. Nowhere in pre-Christian literature can be found a broader, purer, loftier, tenderer conception of God than in this little anonymous Heb. tract. Cornill describes it as ‘one of the deepest and grandest things ever written.’ ‘I should like,’ he adds, ‘to exclaim to any one who approaches it: “Put thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” ’ How high the teaching of the book rose above later Judaism, say the Judaism of the time of Christ, and the following generation, is strikingly shown by the way in which it is summarized by Josephus (Ant. IX. x. 2). There is not a word there about the penitence of the Ninevites, or God’s remonstrance with Jonah. The main lesson of the book is absolutely ignored by the proud Pharisaic priest. Another leading thought of the book is the duty of Israel to make its God known to the Gentiles.
(6) The book in the Synagogue and the Church.—It is said in the Mishna (Ta‘anith, ii. 1) that the ritual of a public fast in time of drought included reference by the leader of the congregation to the Book of Jonah, and it has been used from ancient times to the present day in the ceremonial of the Day of Atonement. Christians were early attracted to it by the remarkable allusions in the Gospels: Mat_12:32 ff; Mat_16:4, Luk_11:29 f–32. The reference to the entombment in the fish is in Mt. only. The allusion to the repentance of the Ninevites is in both Mt. and Lk. The significance of the former has been much debated, and some have regarded it as a proof of the historicity of the OT narrative. That in no way follows. Our Lord found the story in the Scriptures, and appealed to it as something generally known to His hearers. His use of it fastened on the imagination of the early Christians, and led them to take great interest in the whole Book of Jonah. The remains of early Christian art in catacomb paintings, on sarcophagi, lamps, glasses, etc., include a very large number of pictures which have some part of the story of Jonah for their theme. Dr. Otto Mitius, who published a monograph on the subject in 1897, has noted 177 examples. The oldest, in the Catacomb of S. Callisto, may date from the 1st century.
(7) Parallels to Jonah.—Attention has often been called to the classical myths of Andromeda and Hesione, the scene of the former of which is laid in the neighbourhood of Joppa, but reference to them, even indirectly, is improbable. Nor is it likely that the Heb. writer had in mind a dragon myth of Babylonia. A really striking parallel to part of the first chapter (Jon_1:7-15) was noted by a German scholar in 1896 in Buddhistic literature. A young man of Benares named Mittavindaka, the son of a merchant, went to sea in defiance of his mother’s objection. When after a time the vessel was unable to proceed on its course, owing to some mysterious impediment, the sailors concluded that it must be through the sin of some one on board, and therefore cast lots to discover the offender. The lots were cast three times, and each time the lot fell to Mittavindaka. As he was clearly the culprit, they turned him out of the ship, and placed him on a raft. Their ship was then able to continue the voyage. The close correspondence of this Indian story with the part of the Biblical story referred to is very remarkable, but need not point to any connexion between the two beyond community of feeling and action, under similar circumstances, of Indian and Phœnician mariners.
W. Taylor Smith.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


("dove".) (Gen_8:8-9, seeking rest in vain, fleeing from Noah and the ark; so Jonah). Parentage, date. Son of Amittai of Gath Hepher in Zebulun (2Ki_14:25-27, compare 2Ki_13:4-7). Jeroboam II "restored the coast from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel which He spoke by the hand of His servant Jonah" etc. (See HAMATH.) "For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any (i.e., none married or single, else confined or at large, as a) helper for Israel." Israel was at its lowest extremity, i.e early in Joash's reign, when Jehovah (probably by Jonah) promised deliverance from Syria, which was actually given first under Joash, in answer to Jehoahaz' prayer, then completely under Jeroboam II. (See JEHOAHAZ.) Thus, Jonah was among the earliest of the prophets who wrote, and close upon Elisha who died in Joash's reign, having just before death foretold Syria's defeat thrice (2Ki_13:14-21).
Hosea and Amos prophesied in the latter part of the 41 years' reign of Jeroboam II. The events recorded in the book of Jonah were probably late in his life. The book begins with "And," implying that it continues his prophetic work begun before; it was written probably about Hosea's and Amos' time. Hosea (Hos_6:2) saw the prophetical meaning of Jonah's entombment: "after two days will He revive us, in the third day He will raise us up;" primarily Israel, in a short period (Luk_13:32-33) to be revived from its national deadness, antitypically Messiah, raised on the third day (Joh_2:19; 1Co_15:4); as Israel's political resurrection typifies the general resurrection, of which Christ's resurrection is the firstfruits (Isa_26:19; Eze_37:1-14; 1Co_15:22-23; Dan_12:2). The mention of Nineveh's being "an exceeding great city" implies it was written before the Assyrian inroads had made them know too well its greatness.
PERSONAL REALITY. The pagan fable of Hercules springing into a sea monster's jaws and being three days in its belly, when saving Hesione (Diodor. Sic. 4:42), is rather a corruption of the story of Jonah than vice versa, if there be any connection. Jerome says, near Joppa lay rocks represented as those to which Andromeda was bound when exposed to the sea monster. The Phoenicians probably carried the story of Jonah to Greece. Our Lord's testimony proves the personal existence, miraculous fate, and prophetical office of Jonah. "The sign of the prophet Jonah, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights (both eases count the day from, and that to, which the reckoning is) in the heart of the earth" (Mat_12:39-41).
Jonah's being in the fish's belly Christ makes a "sign," i.e. a real miracle typifying the like event in His own history, and assumes the prophet's execution of his commission to Nineveh; "the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold a greater than Jonah is here." The miracle is justified by the crisis then in the development of the kingdom of God, when Israel by impenitence was about to fall before Assyria, and God's principle of righteous government needed to be exhibited in sparing Nineveh through the preaching of Jonah, spared himself after living entombment. The great Antitype too needed such a vivid type.
CANONICITY, DESIGN. It seemed strange to Kimchi that this book is in the canon, as its only prophecy concerns Nineveh, a pagan city, and does not mention Israel, of whom all the other prophets prophesy. The strangeness is an argument for the inspiration of the sacred canon; but the solution is, Israel is tacitly reproved. A pagan city repents at a strange prophet's first preaching, whereas Israel, God's elect, repented not, though admonished by their own prophets at all seasons. An anticipatory dawn of the "light to lighten the Gentiles," Jonah was a parable in himself: a prophet of God, yet a runaway from God; drowned, yet alive; a preacher of repentance, yet one that repines at repentance resulting from his preaching. God's pity and patience form a wonderful contrast to man's self will and hard hearted pettiness. His name, meaning "dove," symbolizes mourning love, his feeling toward his people, either given prophetically or assumed by him as a watchword of his feeling. His truthfullness (son of Amirtai, i.e. truth) appears in his so faithfully recording his own perversity and punishment.
His patriotic zeal against his people's adversaries, like that of James and John, was in a wrong spirit (Luk_9:51-56). He felt repugnance to deliver the Lord's warning to Nineveh ("cry against it," Jon_1:2), whose destruction he desired, not their repentance. Jonah was sent when he had been long a prophet, and had been privileged to announce from God the restoration of Israel's coasts. God's goodness had not led them to repent (2Ki_13:6; 2Ki_14:24). Amos (Amo_5:27) had foretold that Israel for apostasy should be carried "captive beyond Damascus," i.e. beyond that enemy from which Jeroboam II had just delivered them, according to the prophecy of Jonah, and that they should be "afflicted from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness" (the southern bound of Moab, then forming Israel's boundary), i.e. the very bounds restored by Jeroboam II, for "the river of the arabah" or "wilderness" flowed into the S. end of "the sea of the plain" or Dead Sea (2Ki_14:25; Amo_6:14).
Hosea too (Hos_9:3) had foretold their eating unclean things in Assyria. Instinctively Jonah shrank from delivering a message which might eventuate in Nineveh being spared, the city by which Israel was to suffer. Pul or Ivalush III (Rawlinson, Herodotus) was then king. (See ASSYRIA), and by Pal the first weakening of Israel afterward took place. "Jonah sought the honour of the son (Israel), and sought not the honour of the Father" (God) (Kimchi, from rabbinical tradition). Jonah is the only case of a prophet hiding his prophetical message; the reluctance at first was common to many of them (Isa_6:5; Jer_1:6; Jer_1:17; Exo_4:10). His desire was that Nineveh's sudden overthrow, like Sodom's, might produce the effect which his words failed to produce, to rouse Israel from impenitence.
HISTORY. Jonah embarked at Joppa for the far off Tartessus of Spain or Tarshish in Cilicia; compare as to the folly of the attempt Psa_139:7-10; Gen_3:8-10; Jer_23:24. However, "from the presence of the Lord" (Jon_1:3) means not from His universal presence, which Jonah ought to have known is impossible, but from ministering in His immediate presence in the Holy Land. The storm, the strange sleep (of self hardening, weariness, and God forgetfulness; contrast Mar_4:37-39, spiritually with Eph_5:14), the lot casting, and detection of Jonah and casting into and consequent calming of the sea, followed.
TYPICAL SIGNIFICANCE. Jonah reflected' Israel's backsliding and consequent punishment; type of Messiah who bears our imputed guilt and its punishment; compare Psa_42:7; Psa_69:1-2; Joh_11:50. God spares the prayerful penitent: (1) the pagan sailors, (2) Jonah, (3) Nineveh. He sank to the "bottom" of the sea first, and felt "the seaweed wrapped about his head" (Jon_2:5-6), then the God-prepared great fish (the dog fish, Bochart; in any view a miracle is needed, the rest is conjecture). The prophet's experiences adapted him, by sympathy, for fulfilling his office to his hearers. God's infinite resources in mercy, as well as judgment, appear in Jonah's devourer becoming his preserver. Jonah was a type to Nineveh and Israel of death following sin, and of resurrection on repentance; preeminently of Christ's death for sin and resurrection by the Spirit of God (Mat_12:40). Jonah in his thanksgiving notices that his chief punishment consisted in the very thing which his flight had aimed at, being "cast out of God's sight" (Jon_1:3; Jon_2:4; Jon_2:8; Jer_2:13; Jer_17:13).
Hezekiah's hymn is based on it (Isa_38:17; Jon_2:6). Jehovah's next message (more definite and awful than the former) was faithfully delivered by Jonah: "yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed." Jonah, himself a living exemplification of judgment and mercy, was "a sign (an embodied significant lesson) unto the Ninevites" (Luk_11:30). Guilty Jonah, saved from his living tomb, gave a ray of hope to guilty Nineveh. To the Pharisees who, not satisfied with His many signs, still demanded "a sign (Messiah coming gloriously) from heaven," Christ gave a sign "out of the belly of hell" (Jon_2:2), i.e. the unseen region beneath. Christ's death, entombment three days without corruption, and resurrection, is the grand proof of His Messiahship and of His power and will to save, just as Jonah's message derived its weight with the Ninevites from his past entombment and restoration. Forty is the number indicative of judgment for sin, as Israel's 40 years in the wilderness. God granted to Nineveh, however, a double mercy: (1) that the people repented immediately after threatening, (2) that pardon immediately followed repentance.
Their deep reverence for their gods (as appears from their inscriptions), as well as Jonah's deliverance (which was known to them, Luk_11:30), and probably his previous prophecy which had been fulfilled, of Israel's deliverance under Jeroboam II from Syria with which Nineveh had been long warring, all made them ready to heed his message. By general acclamation they proclaimed a fast, which the king confirmed, enjoining all to "cry mightily unto God, turning from every evil way" in hope that "God would turn from His fierce anger." "So God repented of the evil He had said He would do, and did it not." Jonah's anger and its correction. Jonah was "exceedingly displeased" (Jonah 4). Not merely at his word not coming to pass; for it would have been inhuman if Jonah had preferred the destruction of 600,000 rather than his prophecy should be set aside through God's mercy triumphing over judgment; God would then have severely chastised, not merely expostulated gently with him. Moreover, Jonah in apologizing for his vexation does not mention, as its cause, the failure of his prediction, but solely God's slowness to anger.
The end of his commission had not failed, namely, leading Nineveh to repentance. If Nineveh had been the prominent object with him he would have rejoiced at the result. But Jonah regarded Nineveh's destruction by God's judgment as likely to startle Israel out of its apostate security, heightened by its prosperity under Jeroboam II. Moreover, Nineveh was the foretold (Hos_9:3; Hos_11:5; Hos_11:11; Amo_5:27) executioner of God's coming judgment on Israel. Nineveh's destruction, in Jonah's view, meant Israel's safety. But God's plan was by pagan Nineveh's example to teach the covenant people Israel how inexcusable is their impenitence; Israel must, if she continue impenitent, go down, and pagan Assyria rise over her. Hope to the penitent however sunken, condemnation to the impenitent however elevated in privileges, are the lessons our Lord draws from Nineveh (Mat_12:41). Jonah still stayed near the city, possibly expecting some judgment still to fall. To teach him what he knew not, the largeness of God's mercy and its reasonableness, God made a "(See GOURD" (used on trellises in the East shading arbours) to grow over the booth which Jonah raised.
"Grief," not selfish anger, was Jonah's feeling (Jon_4:6). Some little external comfort will turn away a simple minded man from his grief, so Jonah was "exceeding glad." A small worm at the root was enough to destroy the large gourd, so with our greatest earthly joys (Psa_30:7). Jonah was "grieved even unto death" (Hebrew); contrast the Antitype (Mat_26:38). Jonah was making himself rather like Cain (compare Jon_4:9 with Gen_4:6; Jas_1:20). Jonah's grief was owing to his own inherent sin, Christ's owing to our imputed sin. Still Jonah's sorrow even to death was that of one desiring his country's repentance and salvation, and bitterly disappointed as if there was no hope: like Elijah (1Ki_19:4).
God's pathetic and condescendingly touching appeal winds up the book; God's tender accents are the last that reach the ear, the abruptness of the close making them the more impressive "thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night; and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons (120,000 children under four, Deu_1:39) that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand (giving a total, if the children be a fifth, of 600,000 population), and also much cattle?" God saw the root of faith in Jonah, therefore corrected his perverse self will by an appropriate discipline.
Jonah's figurative gourd, Israel's preservation through Nineveh's destruction, though not selfish, was self-willed. It sought a good aim, reckless of the death of 600,000 men, and without making God's will the foremost consideration. The book is narrative throughout, except the thanksgiving hymn (Jonah 2). Some Aramaean expressions naturally occur in the language of one who lived in Zebulun bordering toward Syria, and who had communications with Assyria. The purity of the language implies the antiquity of the book. None but Jonah could have written or dictated details so unique, known only to himself. The so-called "tomb of Jonah," Nebbi Junus (prophet Jonah), took its name probably from its being the site of a Christian church named after him, Jerome preserves the older tradition of the tomb being in his native village of Gath Hepher.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Jo'nah. (dove). Jonah, the fifth of the minor prophets, was the son of Amittai, and a native of Gath-hepher. 2Ki_14:25. He flourished in or before the reign of Jeroboam II, about B.C. 820. Having already, as it seems, prophesied to Israel, he was sent to Nineveh. The time was one of political revival in Israel; but ere long, the Assyrians were to be employed by God as a scourge upon them.
The prophet shrank from a commission, which he felt sure would result, Jon_4:2, in the sparing of a hostile city. He attempted, therefore, to escape to Tarshish. The providence of God, however, watched over him, first in a storm, and then in his being swallowed by a large fish, (a sea monster, probably the white shark), for the space of three days and three nights. [On this subject, see article Whale.]
After his deliverance, Jonah executed his commission; and the king, "believing him to be a minister from the supreme deity of the nation," and having heard of his miraculous deliverance, ordered a general fast, and averted the threatened judgment.
But the prophet, not from personal but national feelings, grudged the mercy shown to a heathen nation. He was, therefore, taught by the significant lesson of the "gourd," whose growth and decay brought the truth at once home to him, that he was sent to testify by deed, as other prophets would afterward testify by word, the capacity of Gentiles for salvation, and the design of God to make them partakers of it.
This was "the sign of the prophet Jonas." Luk_11:29-30. But the resurrection of Christ itself was also shadowed forth, in the history of the prophet. Mat_12:39; Mat_12:41; Mat_16:4. The mission of Jonah was highly symbolical. The facts contained a concealed prophecy. The old tradition made the burial-place of Jonah to be Gath-hepher; the modern tradition places it at Nebi-Yunus, opposite Mosul.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


son of Amittai, the fifth of the minor prophets, was born at Gathhepher, in Galilee. He is generally considered as the most ancient of the prophets, and is supposed to have lived B.C. 840. The book of Jonah is chiefly narrative. He relates that he was commanded by God to go to Ninevah, and preach against the inhabitants of that capital of the Assyrian empire; that, through fear of executing this commission, he set sail for Tarshish; and that, in his voyage thither, a tempest arising, he was cast by the mariners into the sea, and swallowed by a large fish; that, while he was in the belly of this fish, he prayed to God, and was, after three days and three nights, delivered out of it alive; that he then received a second command to go and preach against Nineveh, which he obeyed; that, upon his threatening the destruction of the city within forty days, the king and people proclaimed a fast, and repented of their sins; and that, upon this repentance, God suspended the sentence which he had ordered to be pronounced in his name. Upon their repentance, God deferred the execution of his judgment till the increase of their iniquities made them ripe for destruction, about a hundred and fifty years afterward. The last chapter gives an account of the murmuring of Jonah at this instance of divine mercy, and of the gentle and condescending manner in which it pleased God to reprove the prophet for his unjust complaint. The style of Jonah is simple and perspicuous; and his prayer, in the second chapter, is strongly descriptive of the feelings of a pious mind under a severe trial of faith. Our Saviour mentions Jonah in the Gospel, Mat_12:41; Luk_11:32. See NINEVEH and See GOURD.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


In contrast to the other prophetical books, the book of Jonah does not say who wrote it or why it was written. The book takes its name from the chief person in the story, a prophet who had become known for his accurate forecast of the growth of Israel (the northern part of the divided kingdom) under Jeroboam II (2Ki_14:23; 2Ki_14:25).

Additional contrasts to other prophetical books are the small amount of the prophet’s preaching recorded in the book, and the small amount that is written in poetry. The book is mostly narrative and is directed towards teaching one major lesson.
Purpose of the book
During a time of national prosperity such as Israel enjoyed under Jeroboam II, people readily became selfishly nationalistic. The only threat to Israel’s continued prosperity was the rising power of Assyria to the north. When a hostile neighbour was planning to attack Assyria’s capital Nineveh, God told Jonah to go and warn the Ninevites of the attack. He was to urge the people to repent of their wickedness, so that they might avoid destruction (Jon_3:4-5; Jon_3:10).
Jonah preferred to see Nineveh destroyed. In his view, that would have been a fitting judgment on Assyria and a welcome relief to Israel. God had to show Jonah that he was the controller of all nations, and he would have mercy on whomever he wished (cf. Rom_9:15). God was not the God of Israelites only, but the God of all people and all nations (cf. Rom_3:29).
God was pleased when the Ninevites repented. In fact, their repentance was in sharp contrast to the stubbornness that usually characterized the people of Israel (Luk_11:32).
Since God’s people had so often experienced the love and mercy of God, they were to show similar love and mercy to others. The lesson of the book reaches its climax in the final few verses. God took no pleasure in the destruction of men and women, and neither should his people. Instead they should, like God, desire their repentance and forgiveness (Jon_4:10-11).
Contents of the book
When told to go and preach repentance to the Ninevites, Jonah disobeyed God and fled by ship in the opposite direction. When he was thrown overboard, God saved him by sending a great fish to swallow him alive (1:1-17). From inside the fish, Jonah thanked God for saving him, whereupon the fish vomited him out, still alive (2:1-10).
Jonah then went and preached to the Ninevites and they repented (3:1-10). This displeased Jonah, because they had now escaped the judgment he had hoped would fall on them. God then taught Jonah a lesson by destroying a big leafy plant that had been sheltering him from the burning sun. Jonah did not want the plant to die, and neither did God want the Ninevites to die (4:1-11).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


jō?na (יונה, yōnāh, ?dove?; Ἰωνάς, Iōnás):
(1) According to 2Ki_14:25, Jonah, the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher, a prophet and servant of Yahweh, predicted the restoration of the land of Israel to its ancient boundaries through the efforts of Jeroboam II. The prophet lived and labored either in the early part of the reign of Jeroboam (790-750 BC), or during the preceding generation. He may with great probability be placed at 800-780 BC. His early ministry must have made him popular in Israel; for he prophesied of victory and expansion of territory. His native village of Gath-hepher was located in the territory of Zebulun (Jos_19:13).
(2) According to the book bearing his name, Jonah the son of Amittai received a command to preach to Nineveh; but he fled in the opposite direction to escape from the task of proclaiming Yahweh's message to the great heathen city; was arrested by a storm, and at his own request was hurled into the sea, where he was swallowed by a great fish, remaining alive in the belly of the fish for three days. When on his release from the body of the fish the command to go to Nineveh was renewed, Jonah obeyed and announced the overthrow of the wicked city. When the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of the prophet, God repented of the evil He had threatened to bring upon them. Jonah was grieved that the oppressing city should be spared, and waited in the vicinity to see what would be the final outcome. An intense patriot, Jonah wished for the destruction of the people that threatened to swallow up Israel. He thought that Yahweh was too merciful to the heathen oppressors. By the lesson of the gourd he was taught the value of the heathen in the sight of Yahweh.
It is the fashion now in scholarly circles to treat the Book of Jonah as fiction. The story is said to be an allegory or a parable or a symbolic narrative. Why then did the author fasten upon a true and worthy prophet of Yahweh the stigma of rebellion and narrowness? On theory that the narrative is an allegory, J. Kennedy well says that ?the man who wrote it was guilty of a gratuitous insult to the memory of a prophet, and could not have been inspired by the prophet's Master thus to dishonor a faithful servant.?
(3) our Lord referred on two different occasions to the sign of Jonah the prophet (Mat_12:38-41; Luk_11:29-32; Mat_16:4). He speaks of Jonah's experience in the belly of the fish as parallel with His own approaching entombment for three days, and cites the repentance of the Ninevites as a rebuke to the unbelieving men of his own generation. Our Lord thus speaks both of the physical miracle of the preservation of Jonah in the body of the fish and of the moral miracle of the repentance of the Ninevites, and without the slightest hint that He regarded the story as an allegory.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Jo?nah (a dove), the fifth in order of the Minor Prophets. No era is assigned to him in the book of his prophecy, yet there is little doubt of his being the same person who is spoken of in 2Ki_14:25. His birthplace was Gath-hepher, in the tribe of Zebulon. Jonah flourished in or before the reign of Jeroboam II, and predicted the successful conquests, enlarged territory, and brief prosperity of the Israelitish kingdom under that monarch's sway.
The book of Jonah contains an account of the prophet's commission to denounce Nineveh, and of his refusal to undertake the embassy?of the method he employed to escape the unwelcome task [TARSHISH], and the miraculous means which God used to curb his self-willed spirit, and subdue his petulant and querulous disposition. The third and fourth chapters briefly detail Jonah's fulfillment of the divine command, and present us with another exemplification of his refractory temper. His attempt to flee from the presence of the Lord must have sprung from a partial insanity, produced by the excitement of distracting motives in an irascible and melancholy heart. The temerity and folly of the fugitive could scarcely be credited, if they had not been equaled by future outbreaks of a similar peevish and morbid infatuation. The mind of Jonah was dark and moody, not unlike a lake which mirrors in the waters the gloomy thunderclouds which overshadow it, and flash over its sullen waves a momentary gleam.
The history of Jonah is certainly striking and extraordinary. Its characteristic prodigy does not resemble the other miraculous phenomena recorded in Scripture; yet we must believe in its literal occurrence, as the Bible affords no indication of its being a mythus, allegory, or parable. On the other hand, our Savior's pointed and peculiar allusion to it is a presumption of its reality (Mat_12:40). The opinion of the earlier Jews is also in favor of the literality of the adventure. It requires less faith to credit this simple excerpt from Jonah's biography, than to believe the numerous hypotheses that have been invented to deprive it of its supernatural character, the great majority of them being clumsy and farfetched, doing violence to the language, and despite to the spirit of revelation. In vindication of the reality of this striking narrative, it may be argued that the allusions of Christ to Old Testament events on similar occasions are to actual occurrences (Joh_3:14; Joh_6:48); that the purpose which God had in view justified his miraculous interposition; that this miracle must have had a salutary effect both on the minds of the Ninevites and on the people of Israel. Neither is the character of Jonah improbable. Many reasons might induce him to avoid the discharge of his prophetic duty?fear of being thought a false prophet, scorn of a foreign and hostile race, desire for their utter destruction, a false dignity which might reckon it beneath his prerogative to officiate among uncircumcised idolaters. Some, who cannot altogether reject the reality of the narrative, suppose it to have had an historical basis, though its present form is fanciful or mythical. Grimm regards it as a dream produced in that sleep which fell upon Jonah as he lay on the sides of the ship, and others regard this book as an allegory.
Various other hypotheses have been proposed which are all vague and baseless, and do not merit a special refutation. Endeavoring to free us from one difficulty they plunge us into others yet more intricate and perplexing. Much profane wit has been expended on the miraculous means of Jonah's deliverance, very unnecessarily and very absurdly; it is simply said, 'The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.' Now the species of marine animal is not defined, and the original word is often used to specify, not the genus whale, but any large fish or sea-monster. All objections to its being a whale which lodged Jonah in its stomach from its straitness of throat, or rareness of haunt in the Mediterranean, are thus removed. The Scripture speaks only of an enormous fish, which under God's direction swallowed the prophet, and does not point out the species to which the voracious prowler belonged. Since the days of Bochart it has been a common opinion that the fish was of the shark species or 'sea-dog.' Entire human bodies have been found in some fishes of this kind. The stomach, too, has no influence on any living substance admitted into it. Granting all these facts as proof of what is termed the economy of miracles, still must we say, in reference to the supernatural preservation of Jonah, Is anything too hard for the Lord?
On what portion of the coast Jonah was set down in safety we are not informed. The prophet proceeded, on receiving a second commission, to fulfill it. The fearful menace had the desired effect. The city humbled itself before God, and a respite was vouchsafed. The king (Pul, according to Usher) and his people fasted, and their penitence was accepted. The spirit of Jonah was chafed that the doom he had uttered was not executed. He retired to a station out of the city whence he might witness the threatened catastrophe. Under the shadow of a gourd prepared by God he reclined, while Jehovah taught him by the growth and speedy death of this plant, and his attachment to it, a sublime lesson of patient and forgiving generosity. The book of Jonah is a simple narrative, with the exception of the prayer or thanksgiving in Jonah 2. Its style and mole of narration are uniform. There are no traces of compilation, as Nactigall supposed; neither is the prayer, as De Wette imagines, improperly borrowed from some other sources. That prayer contains, indeed, not only imagery peculiar to itself, but also such imagery as at once was suggested to the mind of a pious Hebrew preserved in circumstances of extreme jeopardy. On this principle we account for the similarity of some portions of its phraseology to Psalms 59, 42, etc. The language in both places had been hallowed by frequent usage, and had become the consecrated idiom of a distressed and succored Israelite. The hymn seems to have been composed after his deliverance, and the reason why his deliverance is noted after the hymn is recorded may be to show the occasion of its composition.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


Mat_12:40 (a) This figure is used by the Lord as a type of Himself in that He was to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly.

Also a type of the believer who, being given a commission by GOD, seeks to avoid it and evade it, but eventually is brought back into GOD's path (Jon_3:3).

Also a type of Israel the nation now scattered among the nations but who will be cast out by them so they may return to their own land. (Jon_1:17).
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


Jonah
(Heb. Yonah', יוֹנָה, a dove, as often, but in that sense fem., Sept. Ι᾿ωνά in 2Ki_14:25; elsewhere and in the N.T. Ιωνᾶς: SEE JONAS ), the son of Amittai, the fifth in order of the minor prophets. No aera is assigned to him in the book of his prophecy, yet there is little doubt of his being the same person who is spoken of in 2Ki_14:25 as having uttered a prophecy of the relief of the kingdom of Israel, which was accomplished by Jeroboam's recapture of the ancient territory of the northern tribes between Coele-Syria and the Ghor (compare 2Ki_14:29). The Jewish doctors; have supposed him to be the son of the widow of Sarepta by a puerile interpretation of 1Ki_17:24 (Jerome, Proefat. in Jonam). His birthplace was Gath-hepher, in the tribe of Zebulon (2Ki_14:25). Jonah flourished in or before the reign of Jeroboam II (B.C. cir. 820), since he predicted the successful conquests, enlarged territory, and brief prosperity of the Israelitish kingdom under that monarch's sway (comp. Josephus, Ant. 9, 10, 1). The oracle itself is not extant, though Hitzig has, by a novel process of criticism, amused himself with a fancied discovery of it in chaps. 15 and 16 of Isaiah (Des Proph. Jonah Orakel. über Moab kritisch vindicirt, etc., Heidelb. 1831).
The personal history of Jonah is, with the exception of this incidental allusion, to be gathered from the account in the book that bears his name. Having already, as it seems (from וin 1:1), prophesied to Israel, he was sent to Nineveh. The time was one of political revival in Israel; but ere long the Assyrians were to be employed by God as a scourge upon them. The Israelites consequently viewed them with repulsiveness; and the prophet, in accordance with his name (יוֹנָה, "a dove"), out of timidity and love for his country, shrunk from a commission which he felt sure would result (Jon_4:2) in the sparing of a hostile city. He attempted, therefore, to escape to Tarshish, either Tartessus in Spain (Bochart, Titcomb, Hengstenberg), or more probably (Drake) Tarsus in Cilicia, a port of commercial intercourse. The providence of God, however watched over him, first in a storm, and then in his being swallowed by a large fish (דָּג גָּדֹול) for the space of three days and three nights (see Hauber, Jonas im Bauche des Wallfisches [Lemg. 1753]; Delitzsch, in Zeitschr. f. Luther. Kirche u. Theol. 11840], 2, 112 sq.; Baumgarten, ibid. [1841], 2, 187; Keil, Bibl. Commentar zu d. Kl. Propheten [Leipz. 1866 ]). After his deliverance Jonah executed his commission; and the king, having heard of his miraculous deliverance (dean Jackson. On the Creed, bk. 9, c. 42), ordered a general fast; and averted the threatened judgment. But the prophet, not from personal, but national feelings, grudged the mercy shown to a heathen nation. He was therefore taught, by the significant lesson of the "gourd," whose growth and decay (a known fact to naturalists: Layard's Nineveh, 1, 123, 124) brought the truth at once home to him, that he was sent to testify by deed, as other prophets would afterwards testify by word, of the capacity of Gentiles for salvation, and the design of God to make them partakers of it. This was "the sign of the prophet Jonas" (Luk_11:29-32), which was given to a proud and perverse generation of Jews after the ascension of Christ by the preaching of his apostles. (See the monographs on this subject cited by Hase, Leben Jesu, p. 160). But the resurrection of Christ itself was also shadowed forth in the history of the prophets, as is made certain to us by the words of our Savior (see Jackson as above, bk. 9, c. 40). Titcomb (Bible Studies, p. 237, note) sees a correspondence between Jon_1:17 and Hos_6:2. Besides this, the fact and the faith of Jonah's prayer in the belly of the fish betokened to the nation of Israel the intimation of a resurrection and of immortality.
On what portion of the coast Jonah was set down in safety we are not informed. The opinions held as to the peculiar spot by rabbins and other thaumaturgic expositors need not be repeated. According to modern tradition, it was at the spot now marked as Khan Nebi Yunas, near Sidon (Kelly's Syria, p. 302). The particular plant (קיקָיוֹן, kikayon', "gourd") which sheltered Jonah was possibly the Ricinus, whose name Kiki is yet preserved in some of the tongues of the East. It is more likely, however, to have been some climbing plant of the gourd tribe. The Sept. renders it κολοκύνθη. Jerome translates it hedera, but against his better judgment and for fear of giving offense to the critics of his age, as he quietly adds in justification of his less preferable rendering, "Sed timuimus grammaticos." (See an elucidation of the passage in the Beitr. zur Beförd. etc. 19, p. 183.) SEE GOURD.
Various spots have been pointed out as the place of his sepulchre, such as Mosul in the East, and Gath-hepher in Palestine; while the so called Epiphanius speaks of his retreating to Tyre, and being buried there in the tomb of Cenezaeus, judge of Israel. (See Otho, Lexicon Rabb. p. 326 sq.; comp. Ephraem Syrus' Repentance of Nineveh, transl. by Dr. Burgess, Lord. 1853.) Apocryphal prophecies ascribed to Jonah may be found in the pseudo-Epiphanius (De Vitis Prophet. c. 16) and the Chronic. Paschale, p. 149.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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