Jonah

A message from the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai. This is what the LORD said:

1Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

Note"The LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH and often pronounced "Yahweh". Jewish readers avoided saying it aloud and substituted the ordinary word for "lord", which is why English Bibles print it this way. Jonah son of Amittai is named elsewhere as a prophet from Gath-hepher in northern Israel, active in the reign of Jeroboam II, in the first half of the 700s BC (2 Kings 14:25).

2"Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Speak out against it, because the evil the people there do has come up before me."

2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

NoteNineveh was a chief city of Assyria, on the Tigris river near modern Mosul in northern Iraq. Assyria was the great military power of the region and the empire that would later destroy the northern kingdom of Israel; to an Israelite audience it was the feared enemy capital, several hundred miles to the north-east. "Their wickedness is come up before me" is a Hebrew idiom in which the noise of wrongdoing rises like a shout that reaches God's hearing.

3But Jonah got up to run away to Tarshish, to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port city of Joppa and found a ship sailing for Tarshish. He paid the fare and boarded it, planning to sail with the crew to Tarshish and away from the LORD.

3But 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.

NoteTarshish was a distant port in the far west, most often identified with Tartessos in southern Spain; for Israelites it stood for the far end of the known world, in the exact opposite direction from Nineveh. Joppa (modern Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv) was the nearest Mediterranean harbor. "From the presence of the LORD" translates a phrase meaning "from before the face of the LORD", going outside the land where this God was worshiped and where a prophet stood in his service. The Hebrew also uses the same verb "went down" three times over in this chapter, tracking Jonah down to the port, down into the ship, and later down into the sea. The wording "he paid the fare" can be read either as paying his own passage or, less commonly, as hiring the vessel itself.

4But the LORD hurled a great wind onto the sea. A violent storm rose up, and the ship was in danger of breaking apart.

4But 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.

NoteThe verb translated "sent out" means to hurl or throw something with force; the same verb is used a few lines later for the sailors throwing the cargo overboard and for throwing Jonah into the sea. The Hebrew of the last clause says literally that the ship "thought it would break up", giving the vessel itself the fear the sailors feel.

5The sailors were afraid, and each man cried out to his own god. They threw the cargo overboard to make the ship lighter. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest part of the ship, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

5Then 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.

NoteAncient Mediterranean sailors, probably Phoenicians here, each served the god of his own city or people, so a mixed crew would pray to several different gods at once. Throwing cargo overboard was ordinary emergency practice: a lighter ship rides higher and takes on less water.

6The ship's captain came to him and said, "How can you be sleeping? Get up and call on your God. Maybe your God will take notice of us, so we do not die."

6So 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.

7Then the sailors said to one another, "Come on, let's cast lots so we can find out who is to blame for this trouble that has come on us." So they cast lots, and the lot pointed to Jonah.

7And 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.

NoteCasting lots meant throwing marked stones, sticks or pieces of pottery and reading the result as an answer given from outside human control. It was a normal way of settling questions no one could otherwise decide (dividing property, assigning duties, identifying a guilty party) and was used across the ancient world, including in Israel.

8So they said to him, "Please tell us, who is to blame for this trouble that has come on us? What is your work? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?"

8Then 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?

NoteThe questions are not idle curiosity. Ancient people assumed that a god's anger traveled with the person who had offended him, so learning a stranger's trade, homeland and nation was the practical way of working out which god was behind the storm and how he might be appeased.

9He said to them, "I am a Hebrew. I worship the LORD, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land."

9And 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.

Note"Hebrew" is the term Israelites typically used of themselves when speaking to foreigners. To "fear" a god in this language means to worship and serve him, not to be frightened of him. "God of heaven" was a title commonly used in dealings with outsiders, and Jonah's addition that this God made "the sea and the dry land" is pointed to men currently at the mercy of the sea.

10Then the men were even more afraid, and they said to him, "What have you done?" They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had told them so.

10Then 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.

NoteThe Hebrew behind "Why hast thou done this?" can be a question or, just as easily, a cry of horror, closer to "What on earth have you done!"

11The sea was growing rougher and rougher, so they said to him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"

11Then 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.

12He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will calm down for you. I know it is my fault that this great storm has come on you."

12And 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.

13Even so, the men rowed hard to get the ship back to land, but they could not, because the sea kept raging harder against them.

13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.

14So they called out to the LORD, "Please, LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us guilty of killing an innocent man. For you, LORD, have done just as you wanted."

14Wherefore 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.

Note"Innocent blood" is a legal phrase. Killing a person who had done nothing deserving death left bloodguilt on the killer, a debt that could be claimed from him and from the community that allowed it. The sailors are asking not to be held answerable for a death they believe they are being forced into.

15So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the raging sea grew calm.

15So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

16Then the men feared the LORD greatly. They offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made promises to him.

16Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.

NoteAs in verse 9, to "fear" the LORD here means to give him worship. A vow was a binding promise to give a god something specific, usually a sacrifice or gift, in return for rescue, paid once the person was safely home.

17Now the LORD had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

17Now 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.

NoteIn the Hebrew Bible this verse is numbered 2:1, the opening of the next chapter. The Hebrew says simply "a great fish"; it names no species, and the familiar "whale" comes from the Greek word used when this episode is referred to in Matthew's Gospel. "Three days and three nights" follows a reckoning in which any part of a day counts as a whole day, so the span need not be seventy-two full hours; the phrase is also used elsewhere for a long journey or a long stretch of darkness.