BIBLENOTES The Story of Jonah LESSON-SERMON: "MORTALS AND IMMORTALS," MAY 17, 2015 This little book stands alone amongst the writings of the prophets with which it is grouped. It does not contain any prophecies, except the message of Jonah to the Ninevites, yet it is placed with the books of Amos and Micah, which contain hardly anything else. It is written in prose, except the Psalm in chapter 2, and appears at first sight to be a simple narrative of fact.... The hero of the story lived in the reign of Jeroboam II, king of Israel, in whose time Amos s work was accomplished.... But the author of the book before us cannot have been the hero of the story. That is proved by 3:3: Ninevah was an exceeding great city. The Hebrew makes it plain that the writer is looking back on a time already past, writing to those who are no longer familiar with the greatness of Nineveh. But as Nineveh was the metropolis of the world till its fall in 607 B.C.E., this book must have been written after that date. Further, no writer of the time when Assyria was the greatest of the world-powers would have described its ruler as the king of Nineveh, any more than Napoleon at the height of his power could have been called king of Paris.... The language of the book contains words and phrases which were unknown before the captivity. Hence it is generally agreed that the book was not written earlier than the 5th or 4th century B.C.E., in the period following the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah, three centuries after Jonah s day (Dummelow 575). Section 2 Jonah 1:1-7, 10, 12, 15, 17 1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Among the Twelve Prophets, Jonah is the only book to open with the and was or came to pass, a term that often begins narratives. Such a beginning suggests continuation. 2015-05-05 1/8 The Story of Jonah
Jonah is but one story in an all-embracing narrative about the divine and the human, a narrative whose own beginning is elusive and whose ending remains unwritten (NIB.7.492). 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. Three divine imperatives address Jonah: arise, go, and call..... The first two imperatives constitute conventional speech; they often appear in prophetic commissioning formulae.... Having denounced in Obadiah the enemy nation Edom, the canon now turns to another enemy of Israel: the nation of Assyria as represented by its capital city Nineveh.... Yahweh the God of Israel calls it great, an adjective that conjures up size, strength, and status.... Here the unspecified evil of Nineveh comes into the presence (or face) of Yahweh (NIB.7.493-494). 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. Scene one begins with Yahweh speaking to Jonah (1:1-2) and ends with Yahweh speaking to the fish (2:10). Four episodes develop the plot. The first (1:1-3) reports Yahweh s command that Jonah go to Nineveh and Jonah s disobedient flight by ship to Tarshish (NIB.7.492). Jonah seeks to escape from the unwelcome task, both because he hates the Ninevites and because he fears that, after all, God may spare them (Dummelow 576). Jonah goes not to Nineveh but to Tarshish the opposite direction of Nineveh. Whether Tarshish is Sardinia, Carthage, a city in Spain, or a geographical metaphor is not known. Jonah s flight subverts Yahweh s command. All things appear to work well for Jonah: an accessible seaport, a convenient ship, financial solvency, and available space.... He flees west instead of going east. The verb went down begins a process of descent that deepens: first down to Joppa (a seaport on the Israelite coastline) and then down into the ship. The reference to the ship reappears in Jonah s paying of her fare.... Even as he seeks to flee from the presence of Yahweh, that presence surrounds him. What the structure shows, the story verifies. Jonah s flight is futile (NIB.7.494). 4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, 2015-05-05 2/8 The Story of Jonah
so that the ship was like to be broken. The second episode (1:4-6) relates Yahweh s sending a wind upon the sea and the effect of this act upon the sea, the ship, the captain, the sailors, and Jonah. (NIB.7.492). Yahweh hurls a great wind upon the sea.... A chain of cause and effect ensues as the great wind produces a great tempest that threatens to destroy the ship. The portrayal of the inanimate ship as thinking to break up is particularly poignant. The words sound like boards cracking from the force of water (NIB.7.495). 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. First comes an inward response [from the sailors]: They feared. Next comes an outward response in speech: They cried. Then comes an outward response in deed: they hurled.... As [Yahweh] hurled a wind upon the sea, so they hurl their wares to the sea. (NIB.7.495). The ship s crew is composed of a blend of nationalities. Each man appeals to his own god (Dummelow 577). The verb went down continues Jonah s direction of disobedient descent, from Joppa, to the ship, and now to the innards of the ship. The verb lay down suggests that he intends neither words nor action. The verb in the phrase fell into a deep sleep fulfills the intention.... Most likely, the verb indicates a deep sleep, even a trance, that precedes death. (NIB.7.496). 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. The captain of the ship intrudes upon Jonah s space and sleep. This officer is the first human character: What s with you, so soundly sleeping!.... The captain orders Jonah to arise and call to the god whose own command, arise... call, Jonah has already spurned.... If the gods of the sailors have not heeded cries for help, perhaps the god of Jonah will so that we do not perish. Through the captain, the crew s fear of perishing has awakened Jonah from the deathlike sleep he had embraced. Yet he remains silent ( NIB.7.496). 2015-05-05 3/8 The Story of Jonah
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. The third (1:7-16) describes efforts by the sailors to avert disaster and ends with the casting of Jonah to the sea, the cessation of the storm, and cultic acts by the sailors (NIB.7.492). Speech brings the sailors into focus as they propose the casting of lots to determine who among them is responsible for the evil..... Theologically, the use of lots to disclose the truth elevates chance to the level of divine will. The story does not report that Yahweh (or any other deity) directed the outcome of the exercise but simply that the sailors cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah (NIB.7.498). 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. Literally, they feared a great fear. The first speech belongs to the sailors. They exclaim, What is this that you have done! (NIB.7.498). 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. The third speech is Jonah s answer to the sailors. They have addressed him with the exclamatory and the interrogative; he replies with the imperative: Pick me up and hurl me into the sea. The verb hurl [or in the KJV cast me forth ] and the noun sea evoke past actions. Yahweh hurled a wind to the sea, and the sailors hurled wares to the sea. Once asleep in the innards of the ship, Jonah became in effect a substitute for those discarded wares. Now he insists that this ware, namely himself, be hurled to the sea (NIB.7.499). 15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. The resolution of the crisis comes as the sailors try another way. Having failed in their efforts to reach dry land, they call to Yahweh.... Having learned from Jonah who his God is (v. 9), they now do what he has not. They pray (v. 14).... Receiving no direct answer to their prayer, the sailors speak no more. Instead, they follow Jonah s instructions to pick him up and hurl him to the sea. True to his assurance, the sea ceases its raging. It returns to its passive state before Yahweh s great wind stirred it up. Theologically, the loss of power to inflict danger signifies that the power was never its own but Yahweh s (NIB.7.500). 2015-05-05 4/8 The Story of Jonah
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. Section 3 The fourth episode (1:17-2:10) tells of the fish that Yahweh appoints to swallow Jonah, Jonah s prayer to Yahweh from inside the fish, and the expulsion of Jonah to dry land. The verb translated swallow bears only a negative meaning. Here it produces a paradoxical, even ironic, message. Although the fish s swallowing of Jonah saves him from drowning, that salvation opposes the death he seeks (NIB.7.504). The phrase, three days and three nights, marks the length of time it took for the fish to reach the place where it vomited Jonah (NIB.7.504). Note Jesus statement in Matthew 12:40: 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. Jonah 2:1-3 (to ;), 4, 7, 9 I will, 10 1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish s belly, Jonah s predicament causes his prayer to Yahweh.... In turn, the prayer causes Yahweh to speak to the fish with the effect that the fish vomits Jonah onto dry land (v. 10) (NIB.7.505). The following verses are Jonah s prayer. He prays not a lament or complaint song asking to be delivered from danger (as the sailors did in 1:14); instead he prays a psalm of thanksgiving, asserting that he has already been delivered (NIB.7.505). 2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. 3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; 4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. 7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. 9 I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. 2015-05-05 5/8 The Story of Jonah
Salvation is of the Lord. 10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. Section 4 Jonah deviates from the conventional vocabulary of the narrative. He uses new words and phrases. Rather than employing the verb hurl, as the narrator did in 1:4-5, 15 and Jonah himself did in 1:12, Jonah introduces two other verbs for the same idea: in 2:3 the verb salak ( hurled or cast ) and in 2:4 garas ( banished or driven out ). Further, rather than using the phrase rom the presence of the Lord (1:3, 10), he says from your sight (2:4). And never does he use the adjective great, the word most often occurring in the narrative. Yet this adjective might well have prefaced nouns in the psalm, like distress, deep, flood, and mountains. Fourth, Jonah makes claims that do not fit the narrative. He declares that in his distress he called to Yahweh (2:2). Echoing the captain s command, call on your god (1:6), these words remind the reader of the opposite. Jonah did not call to his God. Again, differing from the narrated report, Jonah says that Yahweh cast him into the sea and drove him away from the divine sight. But the reader knows that the sailors did the hurling even as Jonah did the fleeing..... Jonah claims that the deity became his deliverer, bringing up his life from the grave. Mouthing salvation received, Jonah remains in mortal danger. He has been swallowed by a big fish in whose belly he dwells (NIB.7.505). Jonah 3:1 the, 2, 4-8, 10 (to 1st ;) 1...the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. Attention shifts from Jonah to Nineveh, a city great to God, a walk of three days (3:3). It suggests divine perspective: the greatness of Nineveh impresses even God. It suggests divine ownership: God rules over Nineveh. It suggests divine favor: God has ordained the greatness of Nineveh. And it suggests divine abode: The greatness of Nineveh qualifies as a residence for God (NIB.7.511). 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. These five words in Hebrew are probably the briefest of all prophetic utterances. Yet they abound in problems. Nowhere in the story has Yahweh given Jonah this particular 2015-05-05 6/8 The Story of Jonah
message to speak. Whereas the narrator has verified Jonah s arrival in Nineveh according to the word of the Lord, the narrator fails to so verify his speech.... Jonah does not tell the Ninevites why they will be overturned. The idiom forty days, which most often signifies a long, though unspecified, time of trial and testing, seems incongruous with the urgency of Jonah s prediction (NIB.7.511-512). 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. Although Jonah never claimed divine authority for his ambiguous pronouncement, in the first incident the Ninevites make a theological response: they believed in God. Coming from the Hebrew root, this verb puns on the name of Jonah s father, Amittai ( Belief or Truth, 1:1). The calling by the son of Belief elicits belief in God. New to the story, the verb believe was not even used for the sailors who prayed to Yahweh, vowed vows to Yahweh, and sacrificed sacrifices to Yahweh.... Verse 5 shows that Nineveh has indeed begun to overturn (NIB.7.513). 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. At the beginning the king rose from his throne; at the end he sat in ashes. In the middle he removed his robe, and he covered himself with sackcloth. These inverted movements provide a striking picture of a monarch. He has overturned in dwelling, dress, and dignity (NIB.7.513-514). 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Only after humbling himself does the king issue an edict to institutionalize the overturning. It is carefully crafted. First comes the authorization. It names the place (in Nineveh) and the source of the edict (the decree of the king and his great ones). The salutation follows. It is comprehensive, addressing the human being and the animal, the herd and the flock. The corpus consists of six instructions. Three are negative (not taste, not graze, not drink), and three are positive (cover, call, and turn from evil). The conclusion gives the rationale for the instructions. It offers hope, the possibility that God may repent and thus save the Ninevites from perishing (NIB.7.514). 2015-05-05 7/8 The Story of Jonah
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; Because they turned not only reports their repentance but also supplies the motivation for God s subsequent move. In addition to the verb turn, the words way and evil draw from the last instruction (v. 8) to relate that the Ninevites have done more than perform deeds of penance. They have changed inwardly; they have overturned (but not as Jonah had intended). Motivated by their turning, God repented about the evil. Like the verb sub, the verb naham comes from the conclusion of the edict (v. 9), from the royal expression of hope.... Unlike the Ninevites, God does not do evil. God abolishes it from the divine vocabulary (NIB.7.514-515). Sources: Dummelow, J. R., ed. A Commentary on the Holy Bible. Harrington Park: Sommer. The New Interpreter s Bible. Ed. Leander E. Keck. Vol. 7. Nashville: Abingdon, 1996. Abbreviation key: NIB = The New Interpreter s Bible 2015-05-05 8/8 The Story of Jonah