Text -- Jonah 1:8 (NET)

1:8 They said to him, “Tell us, whose fault is it that this disaster has overtaken us? What’s your occupation? Where do you come from? What’s your country? And who are your people?”

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Jon 1:8

What hast thou done, for which God is so angry with thee, and with us for thy sake?

JFB: Jon 1:8

The guilty individual being discovered is interrogated so as to make full confession with his own mouth. So in Achan's case (Jos 7:19).

Clarke: Jon 1:8

Tell us - for whose cause - A very gentle method of bringing the charge home to himself, and the several questions here asked gave the utmost latitude to make the best of his own case.

Calvin: Jon 1:8

After the lot fell on Jonah, they doubted not but that he was the guilty person, any more than if he had been a hundred times proved to be so: for why did they cast lots, except that they were persuaded that all doubt could thus be removed, and that what was hid could thus be brought to the light? As then this persuasion was fixed in their minds, that the truth was elicited, and was in a manner drawn out of darkness by the lot, they now inquire of Jonah what he had done: for they took this as allowed, that they had to endure the tempest on his account, and also, that he, by some detestable crime, had merited such a vengeance at Gods hand. We hence see that they cast lots, because they fully believed that they could not otherwise find out the crime on account of which they suffered, and also, that lots were directed by the hidden purpose of God: for how could a certain judgment be found by lot, except God directed it according to his own purpose, and overruled what seemed to be especially fortuitous? These principles then were held as certain in a manner by men who were heathens, — that God can draw out the truth, and bring it to the light, — and also, that he presides over lots, however fortuitous they may be thought to be.

This was the reason why they now asked what Jonah had done. Tell us, then, why has this evil happened to us, what is thy work? etc. By work here I do not mean what is wrong, but a kind of life, or, as they say, a manner of living. They then asked how Jonah had hitherto employed himself, and what sort of life he followed. For it afterwards follows, Tell us, whence comest thou, what is thy country, and from what people art thou? They made inquiries, no doubt, on each particular in due order; but Jonah here briefly records the questions.

TSK: Jon 1:8

Tell : Jos 7:19; 1Sa 14:43; Jam 5:16

What is thine : Gen 47:3; 1Sa 30:13

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Jon 1:8

Tell us, for whose cause - Literally "for what to whom."It may be that they thought that Jonah had been guilty toward some other. The lot had pointed him out. The mariners, still fearing to do wrong, ask him thronged questions, to know why the anger of God followed him; "what"hast thou done "to whom?""what thine occupation?"i. e., either his ordinary occupation, whether it was displeasing to God? or this particular business in which he was engaged, and for which he had come on board. Questions so thronged have been admired in human poetry, Jerome says. For it is true to nature. They think that some one of them will draw forth the answer which they wish. It may be that they thought that his country, or people, or parents, were under the displeasure of God. But perhaps, more naturally, they wished to "know all about him,"as people say. These questions must have gone home to Jonah’ s conscience. "What is thy business?"The office of prophet which he had left. "Whence comest thou?"From standing before God, as His minister. "What thy country? of what people art thou?"The people of God, whom he had quitted for pagan; not to win them to God, as He commanded; but, not knowing what they did, to abet him in his flight.

What is thine occupation? - They should ask themselves, who have Jonah’ s office to speak in the name of God, and preach repentance . "What should be thy business, who hast consecrated thyself wholly to God, whom God has loaded with daily benefits? who approachest to Him as to a Friend? "What is thy business?"To live for God, to despise the things of earth, to behold the things of heaven,"to lead others heavenward.

Jonah answers simply the central point to which all these questions tended:

Poole: Jon 1:8

Then said they unto him when the lot pointed out Jonah, these mariners all are satisfied that he was the man, that heaven had determined that grand inquiry, and accordingly they treat with him.

Tell us, we pray thee they try what fair means will do with him, and desire to have the account from his own mouth; so Joshua dealt with Achan, Jos 7 : satisfied in the person, next they do, with commendable justice and calmness, inquire into the thing.

For whose cause this evil is upon us: what hast thou done, for which God is so angry with thee, and with us for thy sake? sure thou canst not but know what it is, and now frankly tell us what is thine occupation, what course of life hast thou lived, or what employment dost thou now profess to follow, that we may guess by that whether thou art one of flagitious or of honest life.

Whence comest thou? ere he give answer to this, probably another asketh whence he cometh, what company he had kept; by this they conjecture at the man.

What is thy country? another starts a third inquiry, what country or nation he is of; to those ports persons of different nations flocked; possibly they hoped some or other in the ship might be his countrymen, and so fittest to examine him. Of what people art thou? this seems to be the same question repeated, or else an inquiry where he dwelt. These are the heads of the questions asked him.

Gill: Jon 1:8

Then they said unto him, tell us, we pray thee,.... They did not fall upon him at once in an outrageous manner, and throw him overboard; as it might be thought such men would have done, considering what they had suffered and lost by means of him; but they use him with great respect, tenderness, and lenity: and entreat him to tell them

for whose cause this evil was upon them: or rather, as the Targum,

"for what this evil is upon us;''

and so Noldius ^f renders the words; for their inquiry was not about the person for whose cause it was; that was determined by the lot; but on what account it was; what sin it was he had been guilty of, which was the cause of it; for they supposed some great sin must be committed, that had brought down the vengeance of God in such a manner:

what is thine occupation? trade or business? this question they put, to know whether he had any, or was an idle man; or rather, whether it was an honest and lawful employment; whether it was by fraud or violence, by thieving and stealing, he got his livelihood; or by conjuring, and using the magic art: or else the inquiry was about his present business, what he was going about; what he was to do at Tarshish when he came there; whether he was not upon some ill design, and sent on an unlawful errand, and going to do some ill thing, for which vengeance pursued him, and stopped him:

and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? which questions seem to relate to the same thing, what nation he was of; and put by different persons, who were eager to learn what countryman he was, that they might know who was the God he worshipped, and guess at the crime he had been guilty of.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jon 1:8

¹ tn Heb “On whose account is this calamity upon us?”

² tn Heb “And from what people are you?”

sn Whose fault…What’s…Where…What’s… The questions delivered in rapid succession in this verse indicate the sailors’ urgency to learn quickly the reason for the unusual storm.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Jon 1:1-17

1 Jonah, sent to Nineveh, flees to Tarshish.

4 He is bewrayed by a tempest;

11 thrown into the sea;

17 and swallowed by a fish.

Maclaren: Jon 1:1-17

Guilty Silence And Its Reward

Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me. 3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 4. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. 5. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. 6. So the shipmaster came to him. and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. 7. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. 8. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou what is thy country? and of what people art thou? 9. And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. 10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. 12. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. 13. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. 14. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee. 15. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased from her raging. 16. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. 17. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.'--Jonah 1:1-17.

JONAH was apparently an older contemporary of Hosea and Amos. The Assyrian power was looming threateningly on the northern horizon, and a flash or two had already broken from that cloud. No doubt terror had wrought hate and intenser narrowness. To correct these by teaching, by an instance drawn from Assyria itself, God's care for the Gentiles and their susceptibility to His voice, was the purpose of Jonah's mission. He is a prophet of Israel, because the lesson of his history was for them, though his message was for Nineveh. He first taught by example the truth which Jesus proclaimed in the synagogue of Nazareth, and Peter learned on the housetop at Joppa, and Paul took as his guiding star. A truth so unwelcome and remote from popular belief needed emphasis when first proclaimed; and this singular story, as it were, underlines it for the generation which heard it first. Its place would rather have been among the narratives than the prophets, except for this aspect of it. So regarded, Jonah becomes a kind of representative of Israel; and his history sets forth large lessons as to its function among the nations, its unwillingness to discharge it, the consequences of disobedience, and the means of return to a better mind.

Note then, first, the Prophet's unwelcome charge. There seems no sufficient reason for doubting the historical reality of Jonah's mission to Nineveh; for we know that intercourse was not infrequent, and the silence of other records is, in their fragmentary condition, nothing wonderful. But the fact that a prophet of Israel was sent to a heathen city, and that not to denounce destruction except as a means of winning to repentance, declared emphatically God's care for the world, and rebuked the exclusiveness which claimed Him for Israel alone. The same spirit haunts the Christian Church, and we have all need to ponder the opposite truth, till our sympathies are widened to the width of God's universal love, and we discern that we are bound to care for all men, since He does so.

Jonah sullenly resolved not to obey God's voice. What a glimpse into the prophetic office that gives us! The divine Spirit could be resisted, and the Prophet was no mere machine, but a living man who had to consent with his devoted will to bear the burden of the Lord. One refused, and his refusal teaches us how superb and self-sacrificing was the faithfulness of the rest. So we have each to do in regard to God's message intrusted to us. We must bow our wills, and sink our prejudices, and sacrifice our tastes, and say, Here am I; send me.'

Jonah represents the national feelings which he shared. Why did he refuse to go to Nineveh? Not because he was afraid of his life, or thought the task hopeless. He refused because he feared success. God's goodness was being stretched rather too far, if it was going to take in Nineveh. Jonah did not want it to escape. If he had been sent to destroy it, he would probably have gone gladly. He grudged that heathen should share Israel's privileges, and probably thought that gain to Nineveh would be loss to Israel. It was exactly the spirit of the prodigal's elder brother. There was also working in him the concern for his own reputation, which would be damaged if the threats he uttered turned out to be thunder without lightning, by reason of the repentance of Nineveh.

Israel was set among the nations, not as a dark lantern, but as the great lampstand in the Temple court proclaimed, to ray out light to all the world. Jonah's mission was but a concrete instance of Israel's charge. The nation was as reluctant to fulfil the reason of its existence as the Prophet was. Both begrudged sharing privileges with heathen dogs, both thought God's care wasted, and neither had such feelings towards the rest of the world as to be willing to be messengers of forgiveness to them. All sorts of religious exclusiveness, contemptuous estimates of other nations, and that bastard patriotism which would keep national blessings for our own country alone, are condemned by this story. In it dawns the first faint light of that sun which shone at its full when Jesus healed the Canaanite's daughter, or when He said, Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.'

Note, next, the fatal consequences of refusal to obey the God-given charge. We need not suppose that Jonah thought that he could actually get away from God's presence. Possibly he believed in a special presence of God in the land of Israel, or, more probably, the phrase means to escape from service. At any rate, he determined to do his flight thoroughly. Tarshish was, to a Hebrew, at the other end of the world from Nineveh. The Jews were no sailors, and the choice of the sea as means of escape indicates the obstinacy of determination in Jonah.

The storm is described with a profusion of unusual words, all apparently technical terms, picked up on board, just as Luke, in the only other account of a storm in Scripture, has done. What a difference between the two voyages I In the one, the unfaithful prophet is the cause of disaster, and the only sluggard in the ship. In the other, the Apostle, who has hazarded his life to proclaim his Lord, is the source of hope, courage, vigour, and safety. Such are the consequences of silence and of brave speech for God. No wonder that the fugitive Prophet slunk down into some dark corner, and sat bitterly brooding there, self-accused and condemned, till weariness and the relief of the tension of his journey lulled him to sleep. It was a stupid and heavy sleep. Alas for those whose only refuge from conscience is oblivion!

Over against this picture of the insensible Prophet, all unaware of the storm (which may suggest the parallel insensibility of Israel to the impending divine judgments), is set the behaviour of the heathen sailors, or salts,' as the story calls them. Their conduct is part of the lesson of the book; for, heathen as they are, they have yet a sense of dependence, and they pray; they are full of courage, battling with the storm, jettisoning the cargo, and doing everything possible to save the ship. Their treatment of Jonah is generous and chivalrous. Even when they hear his crime, and know that the storm is howling like a wild beast for him, they are unwilling to throw him overboard without one more effort; and when at last they do it, their prayer is for forgiveness, inasmuch as they are but carrying out the will of Jehovah. They are so much touched by the whole incident that they offer sacrifices to the God of the Hebrews, and are, in some sense, and possibly but for a time, worshippers of Him.

All this holds the mirror up to Israel, by showing how much of human kindness and generosity, and how much of susceptibility for the truth which Israel had to declare, lay in rude hearts beyond its pale. This crew of heathen of various nationalities and religions were yet men who could be kind to a renegade Prophet, peril their lives to save his, and worship Jehovah. I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel,' is the same lesson in another form. We may find abundant opportunities for learning it; for the characters of godless men, and of some among the heathen, may well shame many a Christian.

Jonah's conduct in the storm is no less noble than his former conduct had been base. The burst of the tempest blew away all the fog from his mind, and he saw the stars again. His confession of faith; his calm conviction that he was the cause of the storm; his quiet, unhesitating command to throw him into the wild chaos foaming about the ship; his willing acceptance of death as the wages of his sin, all tell how true a saint he was in the depth of his soul. Sorrow and chastisement turn up the subsoil. If a man has any good in him, it generally comes to the top when he is afflicted and looks death in the face. If there is nothing but gravel beneath, it too will be brought up by the plough. There may be much selfish unfaithfulness overlying a real devoted heart.

Jonah represented Israel here too, both in that the consequence of the national unfaithfulness and greedy, exclusive grasp of their privileges would lead to their being cast into the roaring waves of the sea of nations, amid the tumult of the peoples, and in that, for them as for him, the calamity would bring about a better mind, the confession of their faith, and acknowledgment of their sin. The history of Israel was typified in this history, and the lessons it teaches are lessons for all churches, and for all God's children for all time. If we shirk our duty of witnessing for Him, or any other of His plain commands, unfaithfulness will be our ruin. The storm is sure to break where His Jonahs try to hide, and their only hope lies in bowing to the chastisement and consenting to be punished, and avowing whose they are and whom they serve. If we own Him while the storm whistles round us, the worst of it is past, and though we have to struggle amid its waves, He will take care of us, and anything is possible rather than that we should be lost in them.

The miracle of rescue is the last point. Jonah's repentance saved his life. Tossed overboard impenitent he would have been drowned. So Israel was taught that the break-up of their national life would not be their destruction if they turned to the Lord in their calamity. The wider lesson of the means of making chastisement into blessing, and securing a way of escape--namely, by owning the justice of the stroke, and returning to duty--is meant for us all. He who sends the storm watches its effect on us, and will not let His repentant servants be utterly overwhelmed. That is a better use to make of the story than to discuss whether any kind of known Mediterranean fish could swallow a man. If we believe in miracles, the question need not trouble us. And miracle there must be, not only in the coincidence of the fish and the Prophet being in the same bit of sea at the same moment, but in his living for so long in his strange ark of safety.'

The ever-present providence of God, the possible safety of the nation, even when in captivity, the preservation of every servant of God who turns to the Lord in his chastisement, the exhibition of penitence as the way of deliverance, are the purposes for which the miracle was wrought and told. Flippant sarcasms are cheap. A devout insight yields a worthy meaning. Jesus Christ employed this incident as a symbol of His Death and Resurrection. That use of it seems hard to reconcile with any view but that the story is true. But it does not seem necessary to suppose that our Lord regarded it as an intended type, or to seek to find in Jonah's history further typical prophecy of Him.

The salient point of comparison is simply the three days' entombment; and it is rather an illustrative analogy than an intentional prophecy. The subsequent action of the Prophet in Nineveh, and the effect of it, were true types of the preaching of the Gospel by the risen Lord, through His servants, to the Gentiles, and of their hearing the Word. But it requires considerable violence in manipulation to force the bestowing of Jonah, for safety and escape from death, in the fish's maw, into a proper prophecy of the transcendent fact of the Resurrection.

MHCC: Jon 1:8-12

Jonah gave an account of his religion, for that was his business. We may hope that he told with sorrow and shame, justifying God, condemning himself, and explaining to the mariners what a great God Jehovah is. They said to him, Why hast thou done this? If thou fearest the God that made the sea and the dry land, why wast thou such a fool as to think thou couldst flee from his presence? If the professors of religion do wrong, they will hear it from those who make no such profession. When sin has raised a storm, and laid us under the tokens of God's displeasure, we must consider what is to be done to the sin that raised the storm. Jonah uses the language of true penitents, who desire that none but themselves may fare the worse for their sins and follies. Jonah sees this to be the punishment of his iniquity, he accepts it, and justifies God in it. When conscience is awakened, and a storm raised, nothing will turn it into a calm but parting with the sin that caused the disturbance. Parting with our money will not pacify the conscience, the Jonah must be thrown overboard.

Matthew Henry: Jon 1:4-10

When Jonah was set on ship-board, and under sail for Tarshish, he thought himself safe enough; but here we find him pursued and overtaken, discovered and convicted as a deserter from God, as one that had run his colours.

I. God sends a pursuer after him, a mighty tempest in the sea, Jon 1:4. God has the winds in his treasure (Psa 135:7), and out of these treasures God sent forth, he cast forth (so the word is), with force and violence, a great wind into the sea; even stormy winds fulfil his word, and are often the messengers of his wrath; he gathers the winds in his fist (Pro 30:4), where he holds them, and whence he squeezes them when he pleases; for though, as to us, the wind blows where it listeth, yet not as to God, but where he directs. The effect of this wind as a mighty tempest; for when the winds rise the waves rise. Note, Sin brings storms and tempests into the soul, into the family, into churches and nations; it is a disquieting disturbing thing. The tempest prevailed to such a degree that the ship was likely to be broken; the mariners expected no other; that ship (so some read it), that and no other. Other ships were upon the same sea at the same time, yet, it should seem, that ship in which Jonah was was tossed more than any other and was more in danger. This wind was sent after Jonah, to fetch him back again to God and to his duty; and it is a great mercy to be reclaimed and called home when we go astray, though it be by a tempest.

II. The ship's crew were alarmed by this mighty tempest, but Jonah only, the person concerned, was unconcerned, Jon 1:5. The mariners were affected with their danger, though it was not with them that God has this controversy. 1. They were afraid; though, their business leading them to be very much conversant with dangers of this kind, they used to make light of them, yet now the oldest and stoutest of them began to tremble, being apprehensive that there was something more than ordinary in this tempest, so suddenly did it rise, so strongly did it rage. Note, God can strike a terror upon the most daring, and make even great men and chief captains call for shelter from rocks and mountains. 2. They cried every man unto his god; this was the effect of their fear. Many will not be brought to prayer till they are frightened to it; he that would learn to pray, let him go to sea. Lord, in trouble they have visited thee. Every man of them prayed; they were not some praying and others reviling, but every man engaged; as the danger was general, so was the address to heaven; there was not one praying for them all, but every one for himself. They cried every man to his god, the god of his country or city, or his own tutelar deity; it is a testimony against atheism that every man had a god, and had the belief of a God; but it is an instance of the folly of paganism that they had gods many, every man the god he had a fancy for, whereas there can be but one God, there needs to be no more. But, though they had lost that dictate of the light of nature that there is but one God, they still were governed by that direction of the law of nature that God is to be prayed to ( Should not a people seek under their God? Isa 8:19), and that he is especially to be prayed to when we are in distress and danger. Call upon me in the time of trouble. Is any afflicted? Is any frightened? Let him pray. 3. Their prayers for deliverance were seconded with endeavours, and, having called upon their gods to help them, they did what they could to help themselves; for that is the rule, Help thyself and God will help thee. They cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them, as Paul's mariners in a like case cast forth even the tackling of the ship, and the wheat, Act 27:18, Act 27:19, Act 27:38. They were making a trading voyage, as it should seem, and were laden with many goods and much merchandise, by which they hoped to get gain; but now they are content to suffer loss by throwing them overboard. to save their lives. See how powerful the natural love of life is. Skin for skin, and all that a man has, will he give for it. And shall we not put a like value upon the spiritual life, the life of the soul, reckoning that the gain of all the world cannot countervail the loss of the soul? See the vanity of worldly wealth, and the uncertainty of its continuance with us. Riches make themselves wings and fly away; nay, and the case may be such that we may be under a necessity of making wings for them, and driving them away, as here, when they could not be kept for the owners thereof but to their hurt, so that they themselves are glad to be rid of them, and sink that which otherwise would sink them, though they have no prospect of ever recovering it. Oh that men would be thus wise for their souls, and would be willing to part with that wealth, pleasure, and honour which they cannot keep without making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience and ruining their souls for ever! Those that thus quit their temporal interests for the securing of their spiritual welfare will be unspeakable gainers at last; for what they lose upon those terms they shall find again to life eternal. But where is Jonah all this while? One would have expected gone down into his cabin, nay, into the hold, between the sides of the ship, and there he lies, and is fast asleep; neither the noise without, for the sense of guilt within, awoke him. Perhaps for some time before he had avoiding sleeping, for fear of God's speaking to him again in a dream; and now that he imagined himself out of the reach of that danger, he slept so much the more soundly. Note, Sin is of a stupifying nature, and we are concerned to take heed lest at any time our hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of it. It is the policy of Satan, when by his temptations he has drawn men from God and their duty, to rock them asleep in carnal security, that they may not be sensible of their misery and danger. It concerns us all to watch therefore.

III. The master of the ship called Jonah up to his prayers, Jon 1:6. The ship-master came to him, and bade him for shame get up, both to pray for life and to prepare for death; he gave him, 1. A just and necessary chiding: What meanest thou, O sleeper? Here we commend the ship-master, who gave him this reproof; for, though he was a stranger to him, he was, for the present, as one of his family; and whoever has a precious soul we must help, as we can, to save it from death. We pity Jonah, who needed this reproof; as a prophet of the Lord, if he had been in his place, he might have been reproving the king of Nineveh, but, being out of the way of his duty, he does himself lie open to the reproofs of a sorry ship-master. See how men by their sin and folly diminish themselves and make themselves mean. Yet we must admire God's goodness in sending him this seasonable reproof, for it was the first step towards his recovery, as the crowing of the cock was to Peter. Note, Those that sleep in a storm may well be asked what they mean. 2. A pertinent word of advice: " Arise, call upon thy God; we are here crying every man to his god, why dost not thou get up and cry to thine? Art not thou equally concerned with the rest both in the danger dreaded and in the deliverance desired?"Note, The devotions of others should quicken ours; and those who hope to share in a common mercy ought in all reason to contribute their quota towards the prayers and supplications that are made for it. In times of public distress, if we have any interest at the throne of grace, we ought to improve it for the public good. And the servants of God themselves have sometimes need to be called and stirred up to this part of their duty. 3. A good reason for this advice: If so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. It should seem, the many gods they called upon were considered by them only as mediators between them and the supreme God, and intercessors for them with him; for the ship-master speaks of one God still, from whom he expected relief. To engage prayer, he suggested that the danger was very great and imminent: "We are all likely to perish; there is but a step between us and death, and that just ready to be stepped."Yet he suggested that there was some hope remaining that their destruction might be prevented and they might not perish. While there is still life there is hope, and while there is hope there is room for prayer. He suggested also that it was God only that could effect their deliverance, and it must come from his power and his pity. "If he think upon us, and act for us, we may yet be saved."And therefore to him we must look, and in him we must put our trust, when the danger is ever so imminent.

IV. Jonah is found out to be the cause of the storm.

1. The mariners observed so much peculiar and uncommon either in the storm itself or in their own distress by it that they concluded it was a messenger of divine justice sent to arrest some one of those that were in that ship, as having been guilty of some enormous crime, judging as the barbarous people (Act 28:4), " no doubt one of us is a murderer, or guilty of sacrilege, or perjury, or the like, who is thus pursued by the vengeance of the sea, and it is for his sake that we all suffer."Even the light of nature teaches that in extraordinary judgments the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against some extraordinary sins and sinners. Whatever evil is upon us at any time we must conclude there is a cause for it; there is evil done by us, or else this evil would not be upon us; there is a ground for God's controversy.

2. They determined to refer it to the lot which of them was the criminal that had occasioned this storm: Let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause the evil is upon us. None of them suspected himself, or said, Is it I, Lord; is it I? But they suspected one another, and would find out the man. Note, It is a desirable thing, when any evil is upon us, to know for what cause it is upon us, that what is amiss may be amended, and, the grievance being redressed, the grief may be removed. In order to this we must look up to heaven, and pray, Lord, show me wherefore thou contendest with me; that which I see not teach thou me. These mariners desired to know the person that was the dead weight in their ship, the accursed thing, that that one man might die for the people and that the whole ship might not be lost; this was not only expedient, but highly just. In order to this they cast lots, by which they appealed to the judgment of God, to whom all hearts are open, and from whom no secret is hid, agreeing to acquiesce in his discovery and determination, and to take that for true which the lot spoke; for they knew by the light of nature, what the scripture tells us, that the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord. Even the heathen looked upon the casting of lots to be a sacred thing, to be done with seriousness and solemnity, and not to be made a sport of. It is a shame for Christians if they have not a like reverence for an appeal to Providence.

3. The lot fell upon Jonah, who could have saved them this trouble if he would but have told them what his own conscience told him, Thou are the man; but as is usual with criminals, he never confesses till he finds he cannot help it, till the lot falls upon him. We may suppose there were those in the ship who, upon other accounts, were greater sinners than Jonah, and yet he is the man that the tempest pursues and that the lot pitches upon; for it is his own child, his own servant, that the parent, that the master, corrects, if they do amiss; others that offend he leaves to the law. The storm is sent after Jonah, because God has work for him to do, and it is sent to fetch him back to it. Note, God has many ways of bringing to light concealed sins and sinners, and making manifest that folly which was thought to be hidden from the eyes of all living. God's right hand will find out all his servants that desert him, as well as all his enemies that have designs against him; yea, though they flee to the uttermost parts of the sea, or go down to the sides of the ship.

4. Jonah is hereupon brought under examination before the master and mariners. He was a stranger; none of them could say that they knew the prisoner, or had any thing to lay to his charge, and therefore they must extort a confession from him and judge him out of his own mouth; and for this there needed no rack, the shipwreck they were in danger of was sufficient to frighten him, so as to make him tell the truth. Though it was discovered by the lot that he was the person for whose sake they were thus damaged and exposed, yet they did not fly outrageously upon him, as one would fear they might have done, but calmly and mildly enquired into his case. There is a compassion due to offenders when they are discovered and convicted. They give him no hard words, but, " Tell us, we pray thee, what is the matter?"Two things they enquire of him: - (1.) Whether he would himself own that he was the person for whose sake the storm was sent, as the lot had intimated: " Tell us for whose cause this evil is upon us; is it indeed for thy cause, and, if so, for what cause? What is this offence for which thou art thus prosecuted?"Perhaps the gravity and decency of Jonah's aspect and behaviour made them suspect that the lot had missed its man, had missed its mark, and therefore they would not trust it, unless he would himself own his guilt; they therefore begged of him that he would satisfy them in this matter. Note, Those that would find out the cause of their troubles must not only begin, but pursue the enquiry, must descend to particulars and accomplish a diligent search. (2.) What his character was, both as to his calling and as to his country. [1.] They enquire concerning his calling: What is thy occupation? This was a proper question to be put to a vagrant. Perhaps they suspected his calling to be such as might bring this trouble upon them: "Art thou a diviner, a sorcerer, a student in the black art? Hast thou been conjuring for this wind? Or what business are thou now going on? It is like Balaam's, to curse any of God's people, and is this wind send to stop thee?"[2.] They enquire concerning his country. One asked, Whence comest thou? Another, not having patience to stay for an answer to that, asked, What is thy country? A third to the same purport, " Of what people art thou? Art thou of the Chaldeans,"that were noted for divination, "or of the Arabians,"that were noted for stealing? They wished to know of what country he was, that, knowing who was the god of his country, they might guess whether he was one that could do them any kindness in this storm.

5. In answer to these interrogatories Jonah makes a full discovery. (1.) Did they enquire concerning his country? He tells them he is a Hebrew (Jon 1:9), not only of the nation of Israel, but of their religion, which they received from their fathers. He is a Hebrew, and therefore is the more ashamed to own that he is a criminal; for the sins of Hebrews, that make such a profession of religion and enjoy such privileges, are greater than the sins of others, and more exceedingly sinful. (2.) Did they enquire concerning his calling - What is thy occupation? In answer to that he gives an account of his religion, for that was his calling, that was his occupation, that was it that he made a business of: " I fear the Lord Jehovah; that is the God I worship, the God I pray to, even the God of heaven, the sovereign Lord of all, that has made the sea and the dry land and has command of both."Not the god of one particular country, which they enquired after, and such as the gods were that they had been every man calling upon, but the God of the whole earth, who, having made both the sea and the dry land, makes what work he pleases in both and makes what use he pleases of both. This he mentions, not only as condemning himself for his folly, in fleeing from the presence of this God, but as designing to bring these mariners from the worship and service of their many gods to the knowledge and obedience of the one only living and true God. When we are among those that are strangers to us we should do what we can to bring them acquainted with God, by being ready upon all occasions to own our relation to him and our reverence for him. (3.) Did they enquire concerning his crime, for which he is now persecuted? He owns that he fled from the presence of the Lord, that he was here running away from his duty, and the storm was sent to fetch him back. We have reason to think that he told them this with sorrow and shame, justifying God and condemning himself and intimating to the mariners what a great God Jehovah is, who could send such a messenger as this tempest was after a runagate servant.

6. We are told what impression this made upon the mariners: The men were exceedingly afraid, and justly, for they perceived, (1.) That God was angry, even that God that made the sea and the dry land. This tempest comes from the hand of an offended justice, and therefore they have reason to fear it will go hard with them. Judgments inflicted for some particular sin have a peculiar weight and terror in them. (2.) That God was angry with one that feared and worshipped him, only for once running from his work in particular instance; this made them afraid for themselves. "If a prophet of the Lord be thus severely punished for one offence, what will become of us that have been guilty of so many, and great, and heinous offences?"If the righteous be thus scarcely saved, and for a single act of disobedience thus closely pursued, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 1Pe 4:17, 1Pe 4:18. They said to him, " Why hast thou done this? If thou fearest the God that made the sea and the dry land, why wast thou such a fool as to think thou couldst flee from his presence? What an absurd unaccountable thing is it!" Thus he was reproved, as Abraham by Abimelech (Gen 20:16); for if the professors of religion do a wrong thing they must expect to hear of it from those that make no such profession. " Why hast thou done this to us? "(so it may be taken) "Why has thou involved us in the prosecution?"Note, Those that commit a willful sin know not how far the mischievous consequences of it may reach, nor what mischief may be done by it.

Keil-Delitzsch: Jon 1:6-8

When the danger was at its height, the upper-steersman , or ship's captain ( rabh hachōbhēl , the chief of the ship's governors; chōbhēl with the article is a collective noun, and a denom. from chebhel , a ship's cable, hence the one who manages, steers, or guides the ship), wakes him with the words, "How canst thou sleep soundly? Arise, and call upon thy God; perhaps God ( hâ'ĕlōhı̄m with the article, 'the true God') will think of us, that we may not perish." The meaning of יתעשּׁת is disputed. As עשׁת is used in Jer 5:28 in the sense of shining (viz., of fat), Calvin and others (last of all, Hitzig) have maintained that the hithpael has the meaning, shown himself shining, i.e., bright (propitious); whilst others, including Jerome, prefer the meaning think again , which is apparently better supported than the former, not only by the Chaldee, but also by the nouns עשׁתּוּת (Job 12:5) and עשׁתּון (Psa 146:4). God's thinking of a person involves the idea of active assistance. For the thought itself, compare Ps. 40:18. The fact that Jonah obeyed this awakening call is passed over as self-evident; and in Jon 1:7 the narrative proceeds to relate, that as the storm had not abated in the meantime, the sailors, firmly believing that some one in the ship had committed a crime which had excited the anger of God that was manifesting itself in the storm, had recourse to the lot to find out the culprit. בּשׁלּמי = בּאשׁר למי (Jon 1:8), as שׁ is the vulgar, and in conversation the usual contraction for אשׁר : "on account of whom" ( בּאשׁר , in this that = because, or followed by ל , on account of). הרעה , the misfortune (as in Amo 3:6), - namely, the storm which is threatening destruction. The lot fell upon Jonah. "The fugitive is taken by lot, not from any virtue in lots themselves, least of all the lots of heathen, but by the will of Him who governs uncertain lots"(Jerome).

When Jonah had been singled out by the lot as the culprit, the sailors called upon him to confess his guilt, asking him at the same time about his country, his occupation, and his parentage. The repetition of the question, on whose account this calamity had befallen them, which is omitted in the lxx (Vatic.), the Socin. prophets, and Cod. 195 of Kennicott, is found in the margin in Cod. 384, and is regarded by Grimm and Hitzig as a marginal gloss that has crept into the text. It is not superfluous, however; still less does it occasion any confusion; on the contrary, it is quite in order. The sailors wanted thereby to induce Jonah to confess with his own mouth that he was guilty, now that the lot had fallen upon him, and to disclose his crime (Ros. and others). As an indirect appeal to confess his crime, it prepares the way for the further inquiries as to his occupation, etc. They inquired about this occupation, because it might be a disreputable one, and one which excited the wrath of the gods; also about his parentage, and especially about the land and people from which he sprang, that they might be able to pronounce a safe sentence upon his crime.

Constable: Oba 1:8--Jon 1:8

D. The Destruction of Edom's Leadership vv. 8-9

"Obadiah's discussion nicely interweaves the themes of divine intervention and human instrumentality."²¹

v. 8 The repetition of "declares the Lord" (cf. v. 4) reemphasizes Yahweh's initiative in this judgment. "That day" points to a specific, though undefined, day when He would surely destroy Edom.

God would destroy Edom's famous wise men (cf. 1 Kings 4:30; Job 1:1; 2:11; 4:1; Jer. 49:7; Lam. 4:21) and their understanding by allowing them to fail to detect the unfaithfulness of their allies (v. 7) and to overestimate their own security (v. 3).

"Because of its communication with Babylon and Egypt and because of the information gleaned through the caravans going to and from Europe and India, Edom had gained an enviable reputation for wisdom."²²

The "mountain of Esau" is Mt. Seir, the mountain God gave Esau and his descendants to inhabit (Deut. 2:5).

v. 9 The "mighty men" of Edom may be a synonym for the wise men (v. 8) or the nation's warriors. Together with the wise men the mighty men form a merism, a figure of speech in which two parts stand for the whole, in this case all the Edomites. Rather than feeling confident, the mighty men, a chief resource of the nation, would feel dismayed when they realized that their covenant partners had proved traitorous.

Teman was both a prominent town in central Edom (possibly modern Tuwilan)²³ and the region around the town (cf. Gen. 36:10-11), but its name stands for the whole nation (by metonymy). The end of all this deception and destruction would be the total end of Edom.

Constable: Oba 1:11--Jon 1:13

B. The Explanation of the Charge vv. 11-14

v. 11 God cited one specific instance of Edom's violence against her brother, but as I explained in the introduction, which instance is unclear. Edom's treachery against Judah had taken place on a particular "day" in the past. Likewise God's judgment would come on a particular "day" yet future (v. 8).²⁴ The Edomites' sin was that they failed to support the Israelites in their hour of need (cf. Luke 10:31-32). Instead they stood aloof and watched joyfully as Israel's invader plundered Jerusalem. God considered the Edomites as guilty as Jerusalem's invaders because the Edomites failed to render aid to their brethren.

"In the sight of God, who looks not on the outward appearance but on the heart, there is little distinction in moral accountability between overt sin and an inner bias toward that sin that permits it to go unchecked (cf. Matt 5:21-32)."²⁵

". . . the Israelites are always commanded in the law to preserve a friendly and brotherly attitude towards Edom (Deut. ii. 4, 5); and in Deut. xxiii. 7 it is enjoined upon them not to abhor the Edomite, because he is their brother."²⁶

v. 12-13 God reinforced the seriousness of the Edomites' sin by condemning it in parallel terminology eight times (vv. 12-14).²⁷ Hostile attitudes more than physical violence were Edom's sins against the Israelites on this occasion. Blood ties should have transcended even covenant ties. Edom's allies would break covenant ties with her (v. 7), but she had betrayed blood ties.

v. 14 Physical violence eventually came into play too. As the Judahite fugitives from Jerusalem left the city, the Edomites met them at some fork in the road and slew them rather than helping them escape from the invader. Other Edomites imprisoned fleeing Judahites instead of giving them refuge. This could be poetic hyperbole, but there is nothing in the text that indicates overstatement. All the other descriptions of Edom's actions seem to be literal.

Some English translations render verses 12-14 as referring to the future while others interpret them as referring to the past. Most commentators take the time as past; God was describing something that had already happened.²⁸ A few take it as future describing something that would take place in the future.²⁹ Since this is a judgment oracle, it seems more likely that God was announcing judgment on Edom for something she had already done rather than for something she would do in the future. As she had been proud (v. 2), she had also been violent (v. 10).³⁰

The two most likely historical occasions that are in view are, first, the invasion by a coalition of Arabs and Philistines who carried off King Jehoram, his family, and his property during a period of tension with Edom (2 Kings 8:20-22; 2 Chron. 20:1-2; 21:8-17; 22:1). The second possible event was the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 596 B.C. (2 Kings 24:13-16; 25:4-17; 2 Chron. 36:18, 20; cf. Ps. 137:7; Jer. 9:26; 25:21; 27:3; 40:11; Ezek. 25:12; 32:29; 35:3-9, 11-15; 36:2-7; Lam. 1:17; 2:15-17; 4:21-22). As discussed in the introduction to this exposition, I think there is slightly better evidence for the first occasion than for the second.

Constable: Oba 1:15--Jon 1:17

A. The Judgment of Edom and the Nations vv. 15-18

References to the work and word of the Lord frame this section. Obadiah announced that a reversal of rolls was coming for Edom and all the nations.

v. 15 "The day of the Lord" here is a future day in which God will reverse the fortunes of Israel and the nations (cf. v. 8). It will be the day when God establishes His rule in human affairs, namely, when Jesus Christ returns to rule and reign on the earth. Obadiah said that day was approaching. As Edom and the other nations had done to Israel, so God would pay them back with precisely the same judgment (lex talionis; cf. Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21).

"God shows not only his sovereignty over all people by not permitting unrequited wickedness, but also his justice by not permitting punishment to exceed crime."³¹

Edom's punishments that resulted in her demise as a nation before the Second Coming were part of God's judgment on her, but the prophet saw all God's judgments on Edom and the nations, which will culminate in the eschaton (end times). All the prophets had difficulty seeing the proximity of the future events that they predicted to one another.

"The opening line of v. 15 therefore constitutes the core of Obadiah's prophecy. It provides a theological framework for the preceding verses: the localized disasters befalling Edom and Jerusalem are not merely isolated incidents in a remote and insignificant theater of war, for they mark the footsteps of the Lord himself as he approaches to set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed' (Dan 2:44). And the following verses are essentially a commentary on the implications of that impending day.'"³²

"Edom is presented as the paradigm of all the nations."³³

v. 16 Edom had her "day" on the Lord's holy mountain, Jerusalem, when she failed to help her brother, Israel. Likewise, all the nations would have their "day" dominating Jerusalem and the Jews, during "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24). We live in "the times of the Gentiles."³⁴ Obadiah described these enemies as drinking there in celebration of their dominion over Israel (cf. Exod. 32:6; 1 Sam. 30:16). Though they would celebrate to the point of delirium, God would destroy them, and they would become as though they had never existed. They would drink the cup of His wrath (cf. Ps. 60:3; 75:8; Isa. 51:22-23; Jer. 25:18-18, 28-29; 49:12-13; Hab. 2:15-16).

"The verse apparently precludes any trace of the nations remaining . . ., yet there will be a remnant of various nations in the Millennium (Isa. 2:2-4; Amos 9:12; Mic. 4:1-3; Zech. 14:16-19). How are these two ideas to be reconciled? The answer perhaps lies in the difference between the concept of nations before and during the Millennium. Before the golden age of Messiah's rule on earth the nations consider themselves sovereign and fight to maintain their individual rights. When Christ returns, however, only those from the nations who have called on the Lord's name will enter. Also, they will be under one King and no longer a threat to Israel's existence. Therefore, the nations as we presently know them will exist no more once the Millennium begins. In any case, Obadiah dwells only on the destruction of the old order as far as the nations are concerned."³⁵

v. 17 In that future time of judgment (the Tribulation), there would be those who escaped from Jerusalem, namely, many Jews (cf. Zech. 13:8; Rev. 12:13-17).³⁶ The city would eventually become holy (at the Second Coming), and the house of Jacob, in contrast to the house of Esau, would then possess what God intended for them to have (in the Millennium).

v. 18 The Israelites would then consume the Edomites, as a fire burns up stubble (cf. Exod. 15:7; Isa. 10:17; Joel 2:5; Zech. 12:6; Mal. 4:1; Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17).³⁷ There would be no Edomites left (cf. vv. 8-9; Num. 24:18; Isa. 11:13-14; Ezek. 25:13-14; Amos 9:12), though Israelites would escape from Jerusalem (v. 17).

"Obadiah distinctly mentions the house of Joseph, i.e. of the ten tribes, in this passage and in this alone, for the purpose of guarding against the idea that the ten tribes are to be shut out from the future salvation."³⁸

This prediction will find ultimate fulfillment during the judgment of the nations after the Second Coming and before the messianic rule of Christ in the Millennium begins. Again Yahweh guaranteed the accuracy of this prophecy with His own word (cf. vv. 4, 8).

"Some passages, like v. 18, speak of a military participation by Israel in the judgment of the nations just prior to the Millennium (Zech. 12:1-9; Mal. 4:3 [MT 3:21]), while others depict the Lord carrying out the judgment on behalf of His people (Joel 3:12 [MT 4:12]; Zech. 14:3-5; cf. Matt. 25:31-46). It is difficult to reconstruct the precise order of events. In any case much of the material is evidently not strictly chronological."³⁹

The Edomites' fortunes ebbed and flowed for centuries following Obadiah's prophecy. Herod the Great (Matt. 2:1-17), Herod Antipas (Luke 13:31-32; 23:7-12), and Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1-11, 23) were all of Edomite descent. But in the second century B.C. the Jews virtually consumed Edom as a nation. It was then that the Edomites lost their national identity and autonomy, which they never regained. So the final destruction of the nation of Edom by Israel took place long before the eschaton.

". . . one could speak of a partial fulfillment of Obadiah's oracles when the Maccabeans and Hasmoneans reclaimed these areas for Israel."⁴⁰

However, Obadiah spoke of the nations as well as Edom. He foresaw the destruction of all Gentile powers that dominated the Israelites. Had the Jews accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah, He would have begun to rule just a few years after His crucifixion and resurrection. Since they rejected Him, the final judgment of the nations that the prophets predicted is still future.

Constable: Oba 1:19--Jon 2:3

B. The Occupation of Edom by Israel vv. 19-21

This pericope (section of text), as the former one, also has a framing phrase: "the mountain of Esau" (vv. 19, 21). This mountain, of course, contrasts with the Lord's holy mountain, Zion (vv. 16-17).

vv. 19-20 Obadiah predicted that Jews living in various parts of Israel would possess parts of the Promised Land that other nations formerly occupied. These parts included Mt. Seir (Edom), Philistia, territories to the north of Judah including Ephraim and Samaria (the Northern Kingdom), and Transjordan (Gilead). Formerly exiled Israelites living to the north near Zarephath (in modern Lebanon) and in Sepharad (perhaps Sardis in modern Turkey or a territory in Media or Spain⁴¹) would return and occupy the southern portions of the land, the Negev. Israel would again conquer the land, but this time she would subdue it completely and occupy all the territory God had promised Abraham (cf. Gen. 13:14-17; 26:2-5; 28:13-15; Deut. 1:7).

v. 21 In summary, those who would deliver the Jews to their divinely intended destiny would ascend Mt. Zion and would judge Mt. Seir. Edom would not prevail over Israel, but Yahweh would prove to be sovereign (cf. v. 1). His kingdom would extend over the whole Promised Land, even the part that Israel's enemies formerly occupied and the people who formerly opposed them. The conquest of the land that Joshua began but did not finish will be complete then. Thus Obadiah's prophecy, this tale of two mountains, ends on a climax with Yahweh's kingdom dominating all the nations and with Yahweh as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

"None of the prophets has a more exalted close than this. . . . No man-ruled empire nor any nation of this world will endure forever. All will one day be merged into that eternal kingdom over which the Lord Jesus Christ will reign in solitary glory."⁴²

Amillennial interpreters interpret New Testament references to Israel as references to the church. They see the fulfillment of Obadiah's prophecy not in the restoration of Old Testament Israel to future sovereignty in the Promised Land but in the final victory of the church over all her enemies.⁴³ Premillennialists reject this "replacement theology" (the church replaces Israel in God's program) because we believe when God said "Israel" He meant Israel. It is incorrect, we believe, to conclude that because Christians are the spiritual seed of Abraham the church is the spiritual seed of Israel.

Constable: Jon 1:1--2:10

I. The disobedience of the prophet chs. 1--2

The first half of this prophecy records Jonah's attempt to flee from the Lord and His commission, when he found it personally distasteful, and the consequences of his effort.

Constable: Jon 1:7-10

C. Jonah's failure to fear his sovereign God 1:7-10

The sailors interrogated Jonah about his reasons for travelling on their ship, but it was his failure to live consistently with his convictions that amazed them.

1:7 It appears to have been common among the heathen to cast lots to determine who was responsible for some catastrophe (cf. John 19:24). Saul resorted to this when he could not get a direct response from the Lord (cf. 1 Sam. 14:36-42). Casting lots was a divinely prescribed method of learning God's will in Israel (e.g., Lev. 16:8-10; Num. 26:55-56; 33:54; 34:13; 36:2-3; Josh. 14:2; 15:1; 16:1; et al.). However as practiced by pagans, it was a superstitious practice. In this case God overruled and gave the sailors the correct answer to their request (cf. Prov. 16:33).

". . . Jonah won the lottery--or lost it."²⁹

1:8 The sailors proceeded to interrogate Jonah when they believed they had identified the culprit responsible for their calamity. Had Jonah been involved in some situation that had brought down a curse from someone else that resulted in the storm? Possibly the reason for their trouble had some connection with Jonah's occupation or hometown. His national or ethnic origin might also prove to be the key they sought. Finding the reason for their trouble was what they wanted. They did not ignorantly assume that doing away with Jonah would solve their problem.

1:9 It should have been no surprise to the sailors that Jonah was a Hebrew since they had taken him on board at Joppa, a Hebrew port. This is the name by which the Israelites' neighbors knew them (cf. 1 Sam. 4:6, 9; 14:11). Jonah probably identified himself as a Hebrew as a preamble to explaining that he worshipped Yahweh Elohim, the heavenly God of the Hebrews. The Phoenicians also thought of Baal as a sky god (cf. 1 Kings 18:24). It was the fact that this God made the sea on which they travelled as well as the dry land that convinced the sailors that Jonah had done something very serious. It was obvious to them that Jonah's God was after him and had sent the storm to put him in His hands. Ironically what was so clear to these pagans was obscure to the runaway prophet. When God sovereignly selects someone for special service, that person cannot run and hide from Him. Jonah had not yet learned this lesson.

The title "the God of heaven" is common in the postexilic books (e.g., Ezra 1:2; 7:12; Neh. 1:4; Dan. 2:8). This fact has influenced some scholars to conclude that the Book of Jonah must also date from the same period. However this title was a very old one in Israel's history (cf. Gen. 24:3, 7). Its use on this occasion was particularly appropriate since it expressed the supremacy of Yahweh to polytheistic pagans.

Jonah's confession is a central feature in the narrative. It is the center of a literary chiasmus that begins in verse 4 and extends through verse 16.³⁰

1:10 The sailors' exclamation (rather than question, cf. Gen. 4:10) expressed their incredulity at Jonah's naivete in trying to run away from the God who created the sea by taking a sea voyage. Surely Jonah must have known, they thought, that Yahweh would make their journey perilous. Evidently Jonah had previously told them that he was fleeing from the Lord, but they did not then understand that the Lord was the creator of the sea. Had they known this they probably would not have sold him passage. We need to remember that in the polytheistic ancient Near East people conceived of a multitude of gods each with authority over a particular area of life. A god of the mountains, for example, would have little authority on the plains (cf. 1 Kings 20:23).

Before, the mariners had feared the storm, but now they feared the Lord recognizing the Creator above the creation.³¹

This pericope, like the previous two, builds to a climax that stresses Jonah's failure. He did not fear his God though, again ironically, the pagan sailors did. Jonah professed faith in a sovereign God, yet by trying to escape from the Lord he denied his belief in God's sovereignty. One cannot flee or hide from a sovereign God.

Guzik: Jon 1:1-17

Jonah 1 - Jonah Runs from God

A. Jonah's attempted escape.

1. (1-2) God's call to Jonah.

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me."

a. The word of the LORD came to Jonah: God spoke to Jonah in His own unique and powerful way and He told Jonah to do two things. First, go to Nineveh; second, cry out against it - that is, rebuke them for their sin and call them to repentance.

b. Go to Nineveh: The city of Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire and was a large and prominent city in its day. It was not a city of Israel at all; God called Jonah to go to a pagan, Gentile city and call them to repentance.

i. Ancient historians say that Nineveh was the largest city in the world at that time. It was the large, important capital of a dominating empire - surely an intimidating place to go.

c. For their wickedness has come up before Me: Why did God want Jonah to go? Because God saw their wickedness. None of man's wickedness is hidden before God - He sees it all, and it may come to a point where it demands the specific warning and judgment of God.

2. (3) Jonah's attempt to flee from God's call.

But Jonah arose 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 the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

a. But Jonah arose to flee: Why didn't Jonah want to go to Nineveh and do what the LORD told him to do?

i. It may have been because he was given a difficult job to do. Nahum 3:1-4 gives us a good idea of how wicked the people of Nineveh were. Jonah had every reason to expect that at the very best, he would be mocked and treated as a fool. He might be attacked and killed if he did what the Lord told him to do.

ii. It was also because Jonah didn't want the Assyrians in Nineveh to escape God's judgment. Imagine a Jewish man in New York during World War II hearing God say, 'I'm going to bring terrible judgment on Germany. I want you to go to Berlin and tell Nazi Germany to repent.' Instead of doing it, the man heads for San Francisco and then hops on a boat for Hong Kong.

iii. It is easy to discuss Jonah's reasons for not doing what God told him to do, but what is our reason? God told Jonah to go and to preach; every Christian has the same command in Matthew 28:19-20. With Jonah's example before us, we have even less reason than Jonah for our disobedience.

b. To flee to Tarshish: Why did Jonah choose Tarshish as his destination? Because this city was thought to be towards the end of the earth, and is always associated with ships in the Bible. Jonah wanted to go as far as he could to escape God's presence, but this was a futile attempt.

i. Nineveh was to the east of Israel and Tarshish was about as far as you could go west, on the coast of what is today Spain, past the straits of Gibraltar. In heading for Tarshish, Jonah intended to get as far away from Nineveh and the calling of God to go there as he possibly could.

c. Found a ship going to Tarshish: We don't doubt that Jonah felt like going to Tarshish. There was in impulse within him driving him there, but it was a dangerous impulse. We may take Jonah as an example of the danger of doing things under impulse

i. "Now, I very commonly meet with persons who say, 'I felt that I must do so and so. It came upon me that I must do so and so.' I am afraid of these impulses - very greatly afraid of them. People may do right under their power, but they will spoil what they do by doing it out of mere impulse, and not because the action was right in itself." (Spurgeon)

· An impulse may be very brave, yet wrong (Jonah was very brave in embarking on such a long sea-journey)

· An impulse may appear to be self-denying, yet wrong (it cost Jonah much in money and comfort to go on this long sea-journey)

· An impulse may lay claim to freedom, yet be wrong (wasn't Jonah free to go to Tarshish?)

· An impulse may lead someone to do something that they would condemn in others (what would Jonah say to another prophet disobeying God?)

· An impulse can make us do to God or others what we would never want to be done to our self

ii. Many people take their inner impulses and say, "The LORD told me this or that." This is dangerous even when it doesn't seem so immediately. "What have you to do with the devices and desires of your own hearts? Are these to be a law to you? I pray you, be not among the foolish ones who will be carried about with every wind of fancy and perversity. 'To the law and to the testimony,' should be your cry, and you may not appeal to inward movements and impulses." (Spurgeon)

d. So he paid the fare: It seemed easy enough. Perhaps even Jonah felt that the LORD provided the money for the fare! This shows the danger of being guided by circumstances.

i. "Providence or no providence, the Word of the Lord is to be our guide, and we must not depart from it under pretext of necessity or circumstances. It is very easy to make up a providence when you want to do so. If you sit down and try to find in the ways of God to you an excuse for the wrong which you mean to commit, the crafty devil and your deceitful heart together will soon conjure up a plea for providence."

ii. Nevertheless, when you run away from the LORD, you never get to where you are going and you always pay your own fare. When you go the LORD's way, you not only get to where you are going, but He pays the fare.

e. From the presence of the LORD: Jonah should have read Psalm 139:7-10: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. You can't escape the presence of God.

i. "All the while the ship sailed smoothly over the sea, Jonah forgot his God. You could not have distinguished him from the veriest heathen on board. He was just as bad as they were." (Spurgeon)

B. God prevents Jonah's escape.

1. (4) God sends a storm.

But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.

a. The LORD sent out a great wind: Remember that the Lord stirred up the storm. We often think of Jesus calming the waters, and He can do that. But He can also stir up the storm.

b. So that the ship was about to be broken up: The ship and the sailors were in a dangerous place. This was all due to Jonah being on the ship. There was nothing wrong with the sailors being on the ship, but Jonah had no business there - though on other circumstances it might have been fine for him to go to Tarshish.

i. Jonah might have wondered: "I can go to Tarshish if I want to. I paid the fare. I'm not a stowaway." Yet, "Apologies for disobedience are mere refuges of lies. If you do a wrong thing in the rightest way in which it can be done, it does not make it right. If you go contrary to the Lord's will, even though you do it in the most decent, and, perhaps, in the most devout manner, it is, nevertheless, sinful, and it will bring you under condemnation." (Spurgeon)

2. (5-6) The sailors of the ship seek their superstitious gods.

Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him, and said to him, "What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish."

a. Every man cried out to his god: When in trouble, man does his best to fix the problem. In this case, they threw the cargo overboard. When that isn't enough, man also instinctively turns to his god. If we don't know the true God - the God of the Bible - before we are in trouble, we may sincerely turn to a false and imaginary god, one of our own making.

i. Many people assume that they can put off doing their business with God until they choose a "better" time to do it. Nevertheless, it is extremely presumptuous to think that in the moment of crisis we will be able to call upon the true God if we have not dealt with Him before.

b. Was fast asleep: How could Jonah sleep in the middle of this storm? Perhaps because the storm outside seemed insignificant to him in comparison to the storm inside, the storm that came from his resistance against God.

i. What a curious and tragic scene! All the sailors were religious men, devout in their prayers to their gods. Yet their gods were really nothing, and could do nothing. There was one man on board who had a relationship with the true God, knew His Word, and worshipped Him - yet he was asleep!

ii. "Jonah was asleep amid all that confusion and noise; and, O Christian man, for you to be indifferent to all that is going on in such a world as this, for you to be negligent of God's work in such a time as this is just as strange. The devil alone is making noise enough to wake all the Jonahs if they only want to awake . . . All around us there is tumult and storm, yet some professing Christians are able, like Jonah, to go to sleep in the sides of the ship." (Spurgeon)

iii. The nature of Jonah's sleep is also instructive, and too much like the sleep of the careless Christian:

· Jonah slept in a place where he hoped no one would see him or disturb him. "Sleeping Christians" like to "hide out" among the church

· Jonah slept in a place where he could not help with the work that needed to be done. "Sleeping Christians" stay away from the work of the Lord

· Jonah slept while there was a prayer meeting up on the deck. "Sleeping Christians" don't like prayer meetings!

· Jonah slept and had no idea of the problems around him. "Sleeping Christians" don't know what is really going on

· Jonah slept when he was in great danger. "Sleeping Christians" are in danger, but don't know it

· Jonah slept while the heathen needed him. "Sleeping Christians" snooze on while the world needs their message and testimony

iv. Some sleeping Christians protest that they are not asleep at all.

· "We talk about Jesus" - but you can talk in your sleep

· "We have a walk for Jesus" - but you can walk in your sleep

· "We have passion for Jesus - I just wept in worship the other day" - but you can cry in your sleep

· "We have joy and rejoice in Jesus" - but you can laugh in your sleep

· "We think about Jesus all the time" - but you can think while you are asleep; we call it dreaming

v. How can you know that you are not asleep? "'Then, what do you mean by a man's being really awake?' I mean two or three things. I mean, first, his having a thorough consciousness of the reality of spiritual things. When I speak of a wakeful man, I mean one who does not take the soul to be a fancy, nor heaven to be a fiction, nor hell to be a tale, but who acts among the sons of men as though these were the only substances, and all other things the shadows. I want men of stern resolution, for no Christian is awake unless he steadfastly determines to serve his God, come fair, come foul." (Spurgeon)

c. What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God: The captain knew that his crew cried to their gods, but it did nothing. Perhaps Jonah's God could do something in the crisis.

i. It must have seemed ironic to Jonah that the sailors demanded that he call on his God. His only reason for being on that ship was to escape his God.

3. (7-8) The sailors discover that Jonah is the source of the trouble.

And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, "Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?"

a. That we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us: It is hard to know what motivated the sailors to think that the storm was sent because one of them had wronged their God. Perhaps it was because of some spiritual insight, and they sensed a spiritual power in the storm. Or, perhaps it was just fortunate superstition.

b. The lot fell on Jonah: Once the lot fell on Jonah, the sailors wanted to know as much as they could from Jonah, so they could discover a remedy and save their lives.

c. What is your occupation: 2 Kings 14:25 says that Jonah was a recognized prophet. When he was asked, "What is your occupation?" and he answered, "prophet" then the sailors must have been even more terrified.

4. (9-10) Jonah tells them about who he is and what he has done.

So he said to them, "I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "Why have you done this?" For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

a. The God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land: Jonah knew the truth about God, even though his claim to fear the LORD was only partially true because he was running from the LORD.

i. Even a believer who is in a state of rebellion can give glory to God if he will only tell the truth about God. Although, it is tragic that Jonah's life contradicted his knowledge of God.

ii. However, at the moment when Jonah said, "I fear the LORD," he may have already repented of running away, turning back to God because of the present circumstances.

c. Why have you done this? Even an unbeliever who knows some truth about God can rightly rebuke a Christian who is resisting God. "Why have you done this?" is the most logical question in the world, even for an unbeliever to ask a believer.

5. (11-16) Jonah, at his own request, asks to be thrown into the sea, and the sailors reluctantly agree.

Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?"; for the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me." Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, "We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You." So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows.

a. What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us? The more the sailors hear, the worse the situation gets - the sea was growing more tempestuous.

b. Pick me up and throw me into the sea: Why did Jonah ask to be thrown into the sea?

· Perhaps out of compassion for the sailors

· Perhaps out of a desire to be forced into complete dependence upon God alone. After all, There is no safer place than casting yourself totally upon God

· Perhaps out of a feeling that anything was better than his continual resistance against and running from God

· Perhaps because he had already truly repented. If this is the case, it illustrates that repentance is not only a matter of heart and mind, but also a matter of action

c. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land: The sailors did not want to throw Jonah into the sea, because they believed his God was for real and they dreaded the consequences of throwing a prophet, even a disobedient prophet into the sea. Still, when all hope seemed to be lost they took precautions ("We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood") and threw Jonah into the sea.

d. The sea ceased from its raging: The immediate end of the storm proved that Jonah's God was for real, and that Jonah's resistance to that God was the real problem. In a logical response the sailors feared the LORD exceedingly, sacrificed to God and made promises to serve Him.

i. The sailors moved from fearing the storm to fearing the LORD, just the disciples in the boat did when Jesus calmed the storm (Mark 4:35-41).

ii. "Brethren, I wish I had meet words with which I could fitly describe the peace which comes to a human heart when we learn to see Jesus cast into the sea of divine wrath on our account. Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory can look back upon past sins, with sorrow for the sin it is true, but yet with no dread of any penalty to come. It is a blessed thing for a man to know that he cannot be punished, that heaven and earth may shake, but he cannot be punished for his sin." (Spurgeon)

e. And took vows: Notice that the vows of the sailors came after they were delivered. Based on this, many commentators believe that the sailors came to a true faith in God.

i. Spurgeon preached a sermon with four wonderful points based on the actions of the crew in this chapter.

· Sinners, when they are tossed upon the sea of conviction, make desperate efforts to save themselves

· The fleshly efforts of awakened sinners must inevitably fail

· The soul's sorrow will continue to increase as long as it relies on its own efforts

· The way of safety for sinners is to be found in the sacrifice of another on their behalf

© 2001 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Jonah (Book Introduction)

JONAH was the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher in Zebulun (called Gittah-hepher in Jos 19:10-13), so that he belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes, not to Judah. His date is to be gathered from 2Ki 14:25-27, "He (Jeroboam II) restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. 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 helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash." Now as this prophecy of Jonah was given at a time when Israel was at the lowest point of depression, when "there was not any shut up or left," that is, confined or left at large, none to act as a helper for Israel, it cannot have been given in Jeroboam's reign, which was marked by prosperity, for in it Syria was worsted in fulfilment of the prophecy, and Israel raised to its former "greatness." It must have been, therefore, in the early part of the reign of Joash, Jeroboam's father, who had found Israel in subjection to Syria, but had raised it by victories which were followed up so successfully by Jeroboam. Thus Jonah was the earliest of the prophets, and close upon Elisha, who died in Joash's reign, having just before his death given a token prophetical of the thrice defeat of Syria (2Ki 13:14-21). Hosea and Amos prophesied also in the reign of Jeroboam II, but towards the closing part of his forty-one years' reign. The transactions in the Book of Jonah probably occurred in the latter part of his life; if so, the book is not much older than part of the writings of Hosea and Amos. The use of the third person is no argument against Jonah himself being the writer: for the sacred writers in mentioning themselves do so in the third person (compare Joh 19:26). Nor is the use of the past tense (Jon 3:3, "Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city") a proof that Nineveh's greatness was past when the Book of Jonah was being written; it is simply used to carry on the negative uniformly,--"the word of the Lord came to Jonah . . . so Jonah arose . . . now Nineveh was," &c. (Jon 1:1; Jon 3:3). The mention of its greatness proves rather that the book was written at an early date, before the Israelites had that intimate knowledge of it which they must have had soon afterwards through frequent Assyrian inroads.

As early as JULIAN and PORPHYRY, pagans ridiculed the credulity of Christians in believing the deliverance of Jonah by a fish. Some infidels have derived it from the heathen fable of the deliverance of Andromeda from a sea monster by Perseus [APOLLODORUS, The Library, 2.4,3]; or from that of Arion the musician thrown into the sea by sailors, and carried safe to shore on a dolphin [HERODOTUS, History, 1.24]; or from that of Hercules, who sprang into the jaws of a sea monster, and was three days in its belly, when he undertook to save Hesione [DIODORUS SICULUS, Historical Library, 4.42; HOMER, The Iliad, 20.145; 21.442]. Probably the heathen fables are, vice versa, corruptions of the sacred narrative, if there be any connection. JEROME states that near Joppa lay rocks, pointed out as those to which Andromeda was bound when exposed to the sea monster. This fable implies the likelihood of the story of Jonah having passed through the Phœnicians in a corrupted form to Greece. That the account of Jonah is history, and not parable (as rationalists represent), appears from our Lord's reference to it, in which the personal existence, miraculous fate, and prophetical office of Jonah are explicitly asserted: "No sign shall be given but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for, as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Mat 12:39-40). The Lord recognizes his being in the belly of the fish as a "sign," that is, a real miracle, typical of a similar event in His own history; and assumes the execution of the prophet's commission to Nineveh, "The men of Nineveh . . . repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold, a greater than Jonas is here" (Mat 12:41).

It seemed strange to KIMCHI, a Jew himself, that the Book of Jonah is among the Scriptures, as the only prophecy in it concerns Nineveh, a heathen city, and makes no mention of Israel, which is referred to by every other prophet. The reason seems to be: a tacit reproof of Israel is intended; a heathen people were ready to repent at the first preaching of the prophet, a stranger to them; but Israel, who boasted of being God's elect, repented not, though warned by their own prophets at all seasons. This was an anticipatory streak of light before the dawn of the full "light to lighten the Gentiles" (Luk 2:32). Jonah is himself a strange paradox: a prophet of God, and yet a runaway from God: a man drowned, and yet alive: a preacher of repentance, yet one that repines at repentance. Yet Jonah, saved from the jaws of death himself on repentance, was the fittest to give a hope to Nineveh, doomed though it was, of a merciful respite on its repentance. The patience and pity of God stand in striking contrast with the selfishness and hard-heartedness of man.

Nineveh in particular was chosen to teach Israel these lessons, on account of its being capital of the then world kingdom, and because it was now beginning to make its power felt by Israel. Our Lord (Mat 12:41) makes Nineveh's repentance a reproof of the Jews' impenitence in His day, just as Jonah provoked Israel to jealousy (Deu 32:21) by the same example. Jonah's mission to Nineveh implied that a heathen city afforded as legitimate a field for the prophet's labors as Israel, and with a more successful result (compare Amo 9:7).

The book is prose narrative throughout, except the prayer of thanksgiving in the second chapter (Jon 2:1-9). The Chaldæisms in the original do not prove spuriousness, or a later age, but were natural in the language of one living in Zebulun on the borders of the north, whence Aramaic peculiarities would readily arise; moreover, his message to Nineveh implies acquaintance with Assyrian. Living as Jonah did in a part of Israel exposed to Assyrian invasions, he probably stood in the same relation to Assyria as Elijah and Elisha had stood to Syria. The purity of the language implies the antiquity of the book, and the likelihood of its being Jonah's own writing. Indeed, none but Jonah could have written or dictated such peculiar details, known only to himself.

The tradition that places the tomb of Jonah opposite to Mosul, and names it "Nebbi Junus" (that is, "prophet Jonah"), originated probably in the spot having been occupied by a Christian church or convent dedicated to him [LAYARD]. A more ancient tradition of JEROME'S time placed the tomb in Jonah's native village of Gath-hepher.

JFB: Jonah (Outline)

• JONAH'S COMMISSION TO NINEVEH, FLIGHT, PUNISHMENT, AND PRESERVATION BY MIRACLE. (Jon. 1:1-17)
• JONAH'S PRAYER OF FAITH AND DELIVERANCE. (Jon 2:1-10)
• JONAH'S SECOND COMMISSION TO NINEVEH: THE NINEVITES REPENT OF THEIR EVIL WAY: SO GOD REPENTS OF THE EVIL THREATENED. (Jon 3:1-10)
• JONAH FRETS AT GOD'S MERCY TO NINEVEH: IS REPROVED BY THE TYPE OF A GOURD. (Jon 4:1-11)

TSK: Jonah 1 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Jon 1:1, Jonah, sent to Nineveh, flees to Tarshish; Jon 1:4, He is bewrayed by a tempest; Jon 1:11, thrown into the sea; Jon 1:17, and swallowed by a fish.

MHCC: Jonah (Book Introduction)

Jonah was a native of Galilee, 2Ki 14:25. His miraculous deliverance from out of the fish, rendered him a type of our blessed Lord, who mentions it, so as to show the certain truth of the narrative. All that was done was easy to the almighty power of the Author and Sustainer of life. This book shows us, by the example of the Ninevites, how great are the Divine forbearance and long-suffering towards sinners. It shows a most striking contrast between the goodness and mercy of God, and the rebellion, impatience, and peevishness of his servant; and it will be best understood by those who are most acquainted with their own hearts.

MHCC: Jonah 1 (Chapter Introduction)

(Jon 1:1-3) Jonah, sent to Nineveh, flees to Tarshish.

(Jon 1:4-7) He is stayed by a tempest.

(Jon 1:8-12) His discourse with the mariners.

(Jon 1:13-17) He is cast into the sea, and miraculously preserved.

Matthew Henry: Jonah (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Book of Jonah

This book of Jonah, though it be placed here in the midst of the prophetical books of scripture, is yet rather a history than a prophecy; one line of prediction there is in it, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown; the rest of the book is a narrative of the preface to and the consequences of that prediction. In the midst of the obscure prophecies before and after this book, wherein are many things dark and hard to be understood, which are puzzling to the learned, and are strong meat for strong men, comes in this plain and pleasant story, which is entertaining to the weakest, and milk for babes. Probably Jonah was himself the penman of this book, and he, as Moses and other inspired penmen, records his own faults, which is an evidence that in these writings they designed God's glory and not their own. We read of this same Jonah 2Ki 14:25, where we find that he was of Gath-hepher in Galilee, a city that belonged to the tribe of Zebulun, in a remote corner of the land of Israel; for the Spirit, which like the wind, blows where it listeth, will as easily find out Jonah in Galilee as Isaiah at Jerusalem. We find also that he was a messenger of mercy to Israel in the reign of Jeroboam the second; for the success of his arms, in the restoring of the coast of Israel, is said to be according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah the prophet. Those prophecies were not committed to writing, but this against Nineveh was, chiefly for the sake of the story that depends upon it, and that is recorded chiefly for the sake of Christ, of whom Jonah was a type; it contains also very remarkable instances of human infirmity in Jonah, and of God's mercy both in pardoning repenting sinners, witness Nineveh, and in bearing with repining saints, witness Jonah.

Matthew Henry: Jonah 1 (Chapter Introduction)

In this chapter we have, I. A command given to Jonah to preach at Nineveh (Jon 1:1, Jon 1:2). II. Jonah's disobedience to that command (Jon 1:3). III. The pursuit and arrest of him for that disobedience by a storm, in which he was asleep (Jon 1:4-6). IV. The discovery of him, and his disobedience, to be the cause of the storm (Jon 1:7-10). V. The casting of him into the sea, for the stilling of the storm (Jon 1:11-16). VI. The miraculous preservation of his life there in the belly of a fish (Jon 1:17), which was his reservation for further services.

Constable: Jonah (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Background

Jonah is the fifth of the Minor Prophets (the Book of the Twelve) in our English Bibles. It is unique among the Latter Prophets (Isaiah through Malachi) in that it is almost completely narrative similar to the histories of Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17-19; 2 Kings 2:4-6).¹ The exceptional section, of course, is Jonah's psalm in 2:2-9. Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet on record whom God sent to a heathen nation with a message of repentance.² He was Israel's foreign missionary whereas Hosea was Israel's home missionary. Both of these prophets revealed important characteristics about God: Hosea God's loyal love to Israel, and Jonah His compassion for all people, specifically Gentiles.

Jonah's hometown was Gath-hepher in Galilee (2 Kings 14:25; cf. Josh. 19:13). It stood north of Nazareth in the tribal territory of Zebulun. Jonah prophesied in the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Israel's Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C.; 2 Kings 14:25). Second Kings 14:25 records that Jonah prophesied that Jeroboam II would restore Israel to her former boundaries, which the king did.

It is very probable that God sent Jonah to Nineveh, the capital of the great Assyrian Empire, during the years when that nation was relatively weak. Following the death of King Adad-nirari III in 783 B.C. the nation was not strong again until Tiglath-pileser III seized the throne in 745 B.C.³ During this 37 year period Assyria had difficulty resisting its neighbors to the North, the Urartu mountain tribes who allied with their neighbors, the people of Mannai and Madai. These invaders pushed the northern border of Assyria south to within less than 100 miles of Nineveh. This vulnerable condition evidently made the king and residents of Nineveh receptive to Jonah's prophetic message to them.

Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. It had walls 100 feet high and 50 feet thick, and the main one, punctuated by 15 gates, was over seven and one half miles long.⁴ The total population was probably about 600,000 including the people who lived in the suburbs outside the city walls (cf. 4:11). The residents were idolaters and worshipped Asur and Ishtar, the chief male and female deities, as did almost all the Assyrians. Assyria was a threat to Israel's security (cf. Hos. 11:5; Amos 5:27). This is one reason Jonah refused to go to Nineveh. He feared the people might repent and that God would refrain from punishing Israel's enemy.

Date and Writer

Most critical scholars date this prophecy in the postexilic period during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. They base their opinion on the past tense in 3:3, the size of Nineveh according to that verse, and the differences in style between Jonah and Hosea, another northern prophet. Many conservative scholars believe that these arguments do not outweigh the evidence for a pre-exilic date that many features of the book and the traditional Jewish commentaries present.

If the book records events that really happened, the record of them must have come from Jonah himself. However the book nowhere claims that Jonah was its writer. It seems to argue against this possibility by relating the story in the third person rather than in the first. Therefore some unidentified writer appears to have put the book in its final form. The compilers of the Old Testament canon probably placed this book among the minor prophets because they believed that Jonah wrote it.⁵

One conservative scholar has suggested that what we have is a version of the story that someone wrote for the nation of Judah. He supposedly did this to teach its people the lessons that God earlier taught His prophet, the Ninevites, and the residents of Israel.⁶ Such a message would have been appropriate when the weakened Southern Kingdom faced a threat from another formidable power to its north namely Babylonia. However the arguments for the writer being Jonah are quite convincing.⁷

The events recorded in the book probably covered only a few months or years at the most. Jonah lived during Jeroboam II's reign (793-753 B.C.). Probably a date of composition somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 B.C. would not be far from the truth.

Historicity

Since the rise of critical scholarship in the nineteenth century, many writers and teachers now believe that the events recorded in this book were not historical.⁸ They interpret this book as an allegory or as a parable.

The allegorical interpretation views the book as "a complete allegory in which each feature represents an element in the historical and religious experience of the Israelites."⁹ This interpretation may have arisen because "Jonah" means "dove," and the Jews had long regarded the dove as a symbol of their nation (cf. Ps. 74:19; Hos. 11:11).¹⁰ Those who adopt this interpretation see the book as teaching Israel's mission and failure in being God's missionary agent to the Gentiles. Jonah's flight to Tarshish represents Israel's failure before the Exile, and the great fish symbolizes Babylon. The disgorging of Jonah stands for Israel's second chance following her restoration to the land.

The parabolic interpretation also regards the book as not historical. However, its advocates view it as simply a moral story designed to teach a spiritual lesson. Essentially the lesson is that God's people should not be narrow and introverted but outreaching and missionary in their love and concern for those outside their number who are facing God's judgment. The difference in these two interpretations is the amount of detail that its advocates press. The parabolic interpretation argues for one primary lesson in the story whereas the allegorical interpretation finds meaning in its details too.

Jewish and Christian interpreters believed that the Book of Jonah was historical until the rise of critical scholarship. Jesus Christ referred to Jonah as a historical person and to his experience as real (Matt. 12:38-42; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32).¹¹

"If the three days' confinement of Jonah in the belly of the fish really had the typical significance which Christ attributes to it . . ., it can neither be a myth or dream, nor a parable, nor merely a visionary occurrence experienced by the prophet; but must have had as much objective reality as the facts of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ."¹²

It is unlikely that the writer would have given us the name of Jonah's father if he was not a real person. Furthermore the narrator presented Jonah as a real person, not a mythical or fictitious figure.

The main argument against the book being historical is Jonah's surviving three days and nights in the fish's belly (1:17). However various writers have documented many similar miraculous deliverances.¹³ Since such a survival is physically possible, we should not dismiss the historical view especially since Jesus endorsed Jonah's "resurrection."

Some interpreters, including myself, who hold to the historicity of the events also believe that the book contains symbolic and typical teaching.

"Whereas other prophets proclaimed in words the position of the Gentiles with regard to Israel in the nearer and more remote future, and predicted not only the surrender of Israel to the power of the Gentiles, but also the future conversion of the heathen to the living God, and their reception into the kingdom of God, the prophet Jonah was entrusted with the commission to proclaim the position of Israel in relation to the Gentile world in a symbolico-typical manner, and to exhibit both figuratively and typically not only the susceptibility of the heathen for divine grace, but also the conduct of Israel with regard to the design of God to show favour to the Gentiles, and the consequences of their conduct."¹⁴

The book is probably a prophetic narrative in its literary genre.¹⁵

"The concern of a number of OT prophetic narratives is to trace the process whereby a divine oracle was fulfilled. This book, on the contrary, breaks the pattern surprisingly by showing how and why a divine oracle, concerning the destruction of Nineveh, was not fulfilled."¹⁶

Many commentators who deny the historicity of the book regard it as a parable with certain allegorical features and its literary tone as parody or satire.¹⁷

Purpose

The book is a revelation to God's people of His sovereign power and loving care for all His creatures, even cattle. This revelation came first to Jonah personally and then through him to the Jews. It was not a revelation to the Ninevites. Their responsibility was simply to repent and humble themselves. This revelation should have moved the Israelites to respond as the Assyrians did namely with repentance and humility. They faced similar threats first from the Assyrians and then from the Babylonians. Jonah's lack of concern for the Ninevites contrasts with God's concern for them that was to be the pattern for His people.

Canonicity

The earliest extrabiblical reference to this book is in Ecclesiasticus 49:10. There Ben Sira, who lived not later than 190 B.C., referred to "the twelve prophets" namely the writers of the Minor Prophets books, which include Jonah. The Jewish rabbis never challenged the canonicity of this book.

Message¹⁸

The Book of Jonah does not contain the record of a prophet's message as much as the record of a prophet's experience. That feature makes Jonah distinctive among the prophetic books. This prophet's experiences are what we need to look at to learn the message of this book. That is also true of the former prophets books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. They too teach by recording selected experiences more than prophetic oracles.

There are many incidental features of this story such as the ship, the storm, the fish, the gourd, the worm, the hot wind, and even Nineveh. They are important parts of the revelation, but they do not give us the message of the book. It is the major features of the story that do this. The major features are God and Jonah.

God's dealings with Jonah are even more important than His dealings with the Ninevites from the standpoint of the book's revelation. These dealings reveal God's attitude and activity toward the nations and toward His own people for the nations' sake. We have here a revelation of Yahweh and a revelation of the responsibility of Yahweh's representatives.

One of the characteristics that marked the Israelites was their exclusivity. During the reign of Jeroboam II, when Jonah ministered, Israel was expanding geographically. She was forming alliances with her neighbor nations. However at the same time she was more exclusive religiously than she had ever been. The Israelites believed that their privileged relationship with God needed guarding so the Gentiles would not take it from her as they had taken so many other things. The Israelites projected their hostile attitude toward the Gentiles onto Yahweh. They thought of Him as hostile to their enemies too. Jonah epitomized that attitude. God gave His people this book to teach them that His attitude toward those outside the covenants and promises was quite different from theirs, and theirs should be different too.

The major revelation of Yahweh in this book comes through in His dealings with Nineveh and in His dealings with Jonah. Let's note first what this book reveals about the Lord from His dealings with Nineveh.

Rather than having a superior, exclusive attitude toward the Ninevites, God's attitude was compassion. We can see this attitude at the beginning of the book when God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh. We see it again in God's patient persistence as He brings His prodigal prophet to repentance. We see it again when He sends Jonah there a second time. The clearest revelation of God's attitude toward Nineveh, however, comes through in the last two verses of the book (4:10-11). Amos reveals the sovereignty of God, and Obadiah reveals the judgment of God. Jonah reveals the compassion of God. It is an important balancing revelation among these prophetic messages.

The Hebrew word translated "have compassion" in 4:10 and 11 (Heb. hus) means "to spare by sheltering." The idea is that of covering and so shielding from danger. Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling" (Matt. 23:37). Jesus expressed the same attitude toward Jerusalem that God did toward Nineveh. We see God's attitude toward sinning cities, great groups of people. This is the attitude that has driven missionaries throughout the ages. It is God's attitude of compassion.

All God's activities in this book proceeded from this basic attitude. We might conclude that God sent Jonah to cry against Nineveh only because He was angry with it because of its sin. Certainly it was under His judgment for its sins, but the last verse reveals the underlying motive of God, His compassion.

Seen in this light the troublesome statement that God changed His mind in 3:10 becomes less problematic. The Hebrew word used here (nacham) carries the connotation of being relieved and comforted. We should hear God sighing in relief when we read this verse. When Nineveh repented, God saw that judgment would not be necessary, and this made Him very glad. When people turn from their sin, God turns from their judgment. Of course, God's judgment of sin is a manifestation of His love, but we do not normally appreciate that fact.

Turning to what this book reveals about God's dealings with Jonah we see two things.

First, God needs messengers. In one sense God needs no one and nothing because He is self-sufficient. However in another sense He has chosen to limit His freedom by sending His messages through people. The New Testament expression of this truth is, "How shall they hear without a preacher?" (Rom. 10:14). God has chosen to use human messengers to carry His messages.

The second thing we see as we examine God's dealings with Jonah is that because God needs messengers He is persistent and patient with the messengers He selects. We see this in God's not abandoning Jonah when he boarded the ship to Tarshish. We see it in God's preparing a fish to preserve and transport him back to dry land. We see it in God recommissioning Jonah. We see it in His providing a gourd to shelter the prophet. We see it in God's patient teaching when Jonah was burning up with heat and anger. We see it in God's attempts to bring Jonah into sympathy with His merciful purpose. In all these instances we see God lovingly persuading the prophet to share His fellowship by sharing His attitude.

What about the revelation of the responsibility of God's representatives in this book?

Positively it is to represent God. Jonah did not rebel against God and become angry with God because He failed to appreciate God. He knew God quite well, as 4:2 makes perfectly clear. God sends people to represent Him who know Him. Jonah rebelled and became angry because he hated Nineveh. We should be able to appreciate this because all of us hate violence and cruelty when the wicked misdirect their wrath against people who do not deserve it.

To represent God His servants must be obedient. His orders must have priority over their desires. God's purposes must override our prejudices and our preferences. If that is not the case, then the messenger experiences estrangement from God. However there must be shared attitudes as well as obedient actions for true fellowship to exist. Jonah was not an acceptable representative until his attitude mirrored God's even though he had acquiesced to do God's will.

Jonah gives us the negative example in his attitude toward Nineveh. Jesus gives us the positive one in His attitude toward Jerusalem. Think of all the teeming cities of the world, where cruelty and corruption reign, and then remember that God has compassion on their inhabitants. Do we have more concern for plants than for people? We shall never have a missionary heart until we come into close fellowship with the God of compassion. When we not only know about Him but walk with Him, then we will share His concern. When Jesus looked on Jerusalem, He wept over it.

This book teaches us how God feels about His people as well as how He feels about the teeming masses who do not know Him. He needs us to take His message of compassion to the lost. God is always in need of messengers to stand in the gap. His word must become incarnate before it becomes impressive. That was true in Jesus' case, and it is true in ours. It is good to send Bibles all over the world, but God's primary method always has been to send a preacher with His Word. When people receive the witness of someone whose life God has persuaded to obey him the message of repentance becomes persuasive.

God still needs us, and He sends us (Matt. 28:19-20). Every Christian man, woman, boy, and girl can identify with God's call to Jonah to go to Nineveh. Why must we lift up our voices and cry against the Ninevehs of our day? Their wickedness has come up before the Lord. It is damning them. God wants to save them. Judgment is forever God's unusual (strange) act. What is usual for God is compassion, deliverance, and salvation. Therefore we must announce God's judgment so people have an opportunity to repent.

Notice that when Jonah was disobedient to God there was still much about him that was commendable. This is often true of us in our disobedience, and it often encourages us in our disobedience. Jonah went down to Joppa and found a ship waiting. Often when we disobey God we find that circumstances seem to accommodate us and cooperate with us. Jonah evidently paid his own fare. That was commendable responsibility. Nevertheless all these circumstances that Jonah could have viewed as indications that he was doing right clearly were not indicating that. He never reached Tarshish. God did not allow him to go that far. God gave him some freedom, but He eventually brought him up short. Likewise God does not remind us at every turn that we are disobedient, but He will bring us to the point of acknowledging our disobedience (cf. 1:7). He will not take His hand off us.

The church's failure in evangelism and missions is not due to our failure to know God and His compassion. We do know Him. We have even experienced His compassion in our own lives. Our failure is due to our hatred for those under God's judgment, our Ninevites. Let's admit it. We really do not want to see the world saved. We are much happier enjoying the spiritual comforts of being God's chosen people than we are reaching out to the lost. Let's admit it. We hate the lost just as Jonah did. Why don't we reach out to the city in which we now live? We don't like the people who live there.

How can we overcome this problem? We will not overcome it by trying to love those we hate. That is humanly impossible. What we must do is what Jonah did. We must begin by simply obeying God, by doing what He has told us to do namely go to them with the message of deliverance. In other words we should love our Lord even though we may not love the lost. When we obey Him, as Jonah did, God will begin to deal with our attitude toward those under His judgment.

The Book of Jonah deals with the problem of exclusivism, the sin of concluding that if we have received God's compassion it is for ourselves alone. What we need to do is begin obeying the commission that God has given us. Hopefully our obedience will arise out of love for Him, but it may arise out of our learning that disregarding that commission can result in much pain for us. In any case we need to obey. Then God will begin to teach us love for the unlovely. That too may be a painful learning process, but God will be very tender with us as He teaches us. We will also enter into true fellowship with our Savior who wept over Jerusalem because we will share His heart of compassion.

The message of Jonah then is that God will give us His heart of compassion for the lost as we execute the commission that He has given us.

Constable: Jonah (Outline)

Outline

I. The disobedience of the prophet chs. 1-2

A. Jonah's attempt to flee from God 1:1-3

B. Jonah's lack of compassion 1:4-6

C. Jonah's failure to fear his sovereign God 1:7-10

D. The sailors' compassion and fear of God 1:11-16

D. Jonah's deliverance by God 1:17-2:1

E. Jonah's psalm of thanksgiving 2:2-9

F. Jonah's deliverance from the fish 2:10

II. The obedience of the prophet chs. 3-4

A. Jonah's proclamation to the Ninevites 3:1-4

B. The Ninevites' repentance 3:5-10

C. Jonah's displeasure at God's mercy 4:1-4

D. God's rebuke of Jonah for his attitude 4:5-9

E. God's compassion for those under His judgment 4:10-11

The following outline points out some of the parallels in the story nicely.¹⁹

I. A Hebrew sinner saved (1:1-2:10[11])

A. Jonah's disobedience (1:1-3)

B. Jonah's punishment; heathen homage (1:4-16)

C. Jonah's rescue (1:17-2:10 [2:1-11])

1. God's grace (1:17 [2:1])

2. Jonah's praise (2:1-9 [2-10])

3. God's last word (2:10 [11])

II. Heathen Sinners Saved (3:1-4:11)

A. Jonah's obedience (3:1-4)

B. Nineveh's repentance (3:5-9)

C. Jonah's rebuke (3:10-4:11)

1. God's grace (3:10)

2. Jonah's plaint (4:1-3)

3. God's last word (4:4-11)

Constable: Jonah

Jonah

Bibliography

Allen, Leslie C. The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah. New International Commentary on the Old Testament series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976.

Archer, Gleason L., Jr. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Chicago: Moody Press, 1964. Revised ed. 1974.

Backus, William. The Paranoid Prophet. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1986.

Baly, Dennis. The Geography of the Bible. London: Lutherworth, 1957.

Chisholm, Robert B., Jr. "Does God Change His Mind'?" Bibliotheca Sacra 152:608 (October-December 1995):387-99.

Constable, Thomas L. "What Prayer Will and Will Not Change." In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 99-113. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986.

de Vaux, Roland. Ancient Israel. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961.

Ellison, H. L. "Jonah." In Daniel-Minor Prophets. Vol. 7 of Expositor's Bible Commentary. 12 vols. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and Richard P. Polcyn. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1985.

Feinberg, Charles Lee. Jonah, Micah, and Nahum. The Major Messages of the Minor Prophets series. New York: American Board of Missions to the Jews, 1951.

Gaebelein, Frank E. Four Minor Prophets: Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, and Haggai. Chicago: Moody Press, 1970.

Hannah, John D. "Jonah." In Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, pp. 1461-73. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1985.

Harrison, R. K. Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1969.

Howe, George F. "Jonah and the Great Fish." Biblical Research Monthly, January 1973, pp. 6-8.

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, 1957 ed. S.v. "Nineveh," by A. H. Sayce.

Keil, C. F. The Twelve Minor Prophets. 2 vols. Translated by James Martin. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949.

McGee, J. Vernon. Jonah: Dead or Alive? St. Louis: Miracle Press, 1969.

Morgan, G. Campbell. Living Messages of the Books of the Bible. 2 vols. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1912.

_____. The Minor Prophets. Westwood, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1960.

New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed. S.v. "Nineveh," by D. J. Wiseman.

_____. S.v. "Tarshish," by J. A. Thompson.

Pentecost, J. Dwight. Thy Kingdom Come. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1990.

Strickland, Wayne G. "Isaiah, Jonah, and Religious Pluralism." Bibliotheca Sacra 153:609 (January-March 1996):24-33.

Thomas, D. Winton. "Consideration of Some Unusual Ways of Expressing the Superlative in Hebrew." Vetus Testamentum 3 (1953):209-24.

Wilson, A. J. "Sign of the Prophet Jonah and Its Modern Confirmations." Princeton Theological Review 25 (October 1927):630-42.

Wendland, Ernst R. "Text Analysis and the Genre of Jonah (Part 1)." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39:2 (June 1996):191-206.

_____. "Text Analysis and the Genre of Jonah (Part 2)." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39:3 (September 1996):373-95.

Wiseman, Donald J. "Jonah's Nineveh." Tyndale Bulletin 30 (1979):29-51.

Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, 1975 ed. S.v. "Nineveh," by Elmer B. Smick.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Jonah (Book Introduction)

THE PROPHECY OF JONAS.

INTRODUCTION.

Jonas prophesied in the reign of Jeroboam II, as we learn from 4 Kings xiv. 25., to whom also he foretold his success in restoring all the borders of Israel. He was of Geth --- Opher, in the tribe of Zabulon, and consequently of Galilee; which confutes that assertion of the Pharisees, (John vii, 52.) that no prophet ever arose out of Galilee. He prophesied and prefigured in his own person the death and resurrection of Christ, and was the only one among the prophets who was sent to preach to the Gentiles. (Challoner) --- The most incredible mystery in our religion, and the vocation of the Gentiles, are thus insinuated. (Calmet) --- The latter shall be saved if they repent, like Ninive. (Worthington) --- Thomas Paine's supposition, that this book was written by a pagan "to satirise the malignant character of a predicting priest," requires no refutation. (Haydock) (Watson)

Gill: Jonah (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO JONAH

This book, in the Hebrew copies, is called "Sepher Jonah", the Book of Jonah; by the Vulgate Latin version "the Prophecy of Jonah": and in the Syriac version "the Prophecy of the Prophet Jonah". His name signifies a dove, derived from a root which signifies to oppress; because it is a creature liable to oppression, and to become the prey of others. Hillerus ^a derives the word from a root which signifies to be "fair" and "beautiful", as this creature is This name is very suitable to a prophet and minister of the Lord, who ought to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves; and who mourn over their own sins, and the sins of others. Jonah did not always in, his conduct answer to his name, particularly when he was so angry at the Lord's sparing the Ninevites, and so impatient for the loss of his gourd. His father's name was Amittai, as in Jon 1:1 and in 2Ki 14:25; from whence it also appears that he was of Gathhepher, a town in the tribe of Zebulun, Jos 19:13; and was a part of Galilee, Isa 9:1; and so R. Jochanan, in Abendana, affirms, that he was of the tribe of Zebulun, and of Gathhepher, which was in that tribe; which confutes that notion of the Pharisees in the times of Christ, that no prophet came out of Galilee, Joh 7:52. The Jews ^b have a tradition that his mother was the widow of Sarepta, whose son Elijah raised from the dead, which was this prophet; and who is said to be the son of Amittai, that is, "truth": because his mother thereby knew and believed that the word of the Lord in the mouth of Elijah was truth, 1Ki 17:23; but his being a Hebrew contradicts him, Jon 1:9; for Sarepta was a city of Sidon, and he must have been a Sidonian if born of her, and not a Hebrew: but, be this as it will, it is certain he was a prophet of the Lord; and this book, which bears his name, and very probably was written by him, its divine authority is confirmed by the testimony Christ, of whom Jonah was a type; see Mat 12:39; and indeed the principal design of this book is to set forth in himself the type of the death and resurrection of Christ, by his being three days in the whale's belly, and then delivered from it; and to declare the grace and mercy of God to repenting sinners, and to signify the calling of the Gentiles after the death and resurrection of Christ; and is a very profitable book to instruct us about the power and goodness of God; the nature of repentance, and the effects of it; the imperfection and infirmities of the best of men in this life; and the call and mission of the ministers of the word, and the necessity of their conformity and attendance to it. Cyprian the martyr was converted from idolatry by hearing this prophecy read and explained by Caecilius. If this prophet was the son of the widow of Sarepta, or the person Elisha sent to anoint Jehu, according to the tradition of the Jews ^c, he was born in the times of Ahab, and lived in the reigns of Joram and Jehu; and, according to Bishop Lloyd ^d, he prophesied in the latter end, of Jehu's reign; where Mr. Whiston ^e also places him, about 860 B.C.; or in the beginning of the reign of Jehoahaz, when Israel was greatly oppressed by Hazael king of Syria, 2Ki 13:22; at which time he might prophesy of the victories and success of Jeroboam the second, and grandson of Jehoahaz, 2Ki 14:25; and, if so, he is more ancient than Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Joel, and Micah, whose contemporary he is generally thought to be Pseudo-Epiphanius ^f, as he gives a wrong account of the place of the birth of this prophet, so of the place of his burial; which he makes to be in the land of Saar, and in the cave of Kenan, the father of Caleb and Othniel; but it is more likely that he died and was buried at Geth, where he was born; and where Jerom ^g says his grave was, shown in his time, about two miles from Zippore, in the way to Tiberias; with which account Isidore ^h agrees; and so Benjamin Tudelensis ⁱ says, his sepulchre was on a hill near Zippore. Monsieur Thevenot ^k says, not far from Nazareth the tomb of Jonah is now to be seen, to which the Turks bear a great respect.

Gill: Jonah 1 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO JONAH 1

This chapter gives an account of the call and mission of Jonah to go to Nineveh, and prophesy there, and the reason of it, Jon 1:1; his disobedience to it, Jon 1:3. God's resentment of it, by sending a storm into the sea, where he was, which terrified the mariners, and put the ship in danger of being lost, Jon 1:4; The discovery of Jonah and his disobedience as the cause of the tempest, and how it was made, Jon 1:6; The casting of him into the sea at his own motion, and with his own consent, though with great reluctance in the mariners, Jon 1:11. The preparation of a fish for him, which swallowed him up, and in which he lived three days and three nights, Jon 1:17.