Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,

“Jonah--meaning in Hebrew, "dove." Compare Ge 8:8, 9, where the dove in vain seeks rest after flying from Noah and the ark: so Jonah. GROTIUS not so well explains it, "one sprung from Greece" or Ionia, where there were prophets called Amythaonidæ.”

“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”

“Jonah, however, is sent to Nineveh, not solely for Nineveh's good, but also to shame Israel, by the fact of a heathen city repenting at the first preaching of a single stranger, Jonah, whereas God's people will not repent, though preached to by their many…”

Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish.

“This is the only case of a prophet, charged with a prophetical message, concealing it. from the presence of the Lord--(Compare Ge 4:16). Jonah thought in fleeing from the land of Israel, where Jehovah was peculiarly present, that he should escape from Jehovah's prophecy-inspiring influence.”

The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load.

“How different was Jesus' sleep on the Sea of Galilee! Guilty Jonah's indifference to fear contrasts with the unoffending mariners' alarm. The original therefore is in the nominative absolute: "But as for Jonah, he," &c.”

“I am a Hebrew,” replied Jonah. “I worship the LORD, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”

“Jonah was but the reflection of Israel's backsliding from God, and so must bear the righteous punishment. The guilt of the minister is the result of that of the people, as in Moses' case (De 4:21).”

Now the sea was growing worse and worse, so they said to Jonah, “What must we do to you to calm this sea for us?”

“What shall we do unto thee?--They ask this, as Jonah himself must best know how his God is to be appeased. "We would gladly save thee, if we can do so, and yet be saved ourselves" (Jon 1:13, 14).”

So they cried out to the LORD: “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life! Do not charge us with innocent blood!

“In the case of the Antitype, Pontius Pilate washed his hands and confessed Christ's innocence, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person."”

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God,

“Faith enables Jonah now to feel this; just as the returning prodigal says of the Father, from whom he had wandered, "I will arise and go to my Father" (Lu 15:18). out of the fish's belly--Every place may serve as an oratory.”

saying: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the belly of Sheol I called for help, and You heard my voice.

“His prayer is partly descriptive and precatory, partly eucharistical. Jonah incorporates with his own language inspired utterances familiar to the Church long before in Jon 2:2, Ps 120:1; in Jon 2:3, Ps 42:7; in Jon 2:4, Ps 31:22; in Jon 2:5, Ps 69:1; in Jon…”

At this, I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’

“Rather, I think, "Though cast out of Thy sight, I will still with the eye of faith once more look in prayer towards Thy temple at Jerusalem, whither, as Thy earthly throne, Thou hast desired Thy worshippers to direct their prayers."”

To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God!

“Compare Ps 18:7, "the foundations of the hills" (Ps 18:15). earth with her bars was about me--Earth, the land of the living, is (not "was") shut against me. for ever--so far as any effort of mine can deliver me.”

As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple.

“For a time troubles shut out hope; but faith revived when Jonah "remembered the Lord," what a gracious God He is, and how now He still preserves his life and consciousness in his dark prison-house. into thine holy temple--the temple at Jerusalem (Jon 2:4).”

Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.

“As the Psalmist (Ps 144:2) styles Him, "my goodness"; God who is to me all beneficence. Compare Ps 59:17, "the God of my mercy," literally, "my kindness-God." Jonah had "forsaken His own mercy," God, to flee to heathen lands where "lying vanities" (idols) were worshipped.”

But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the LORD!”

“So Jehoshaphat (2Ch 20:21) appointed singers to praise the Lord in front of the army before the battle with Moab and Ammon, as if the victory was already gained. God honors such confidence in Him.”

This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.

“They looked for a Messiah gloriously coming in the clouds of heaven; the Messiah, on the contrary, is to pass through a like, though a deeper, humiliation than Jonah; He is to lie "in the heart of the earth."”

On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”

“It is no longer a cry against the sins of Nineveh, but an announcement of its ruin in forty days. This number is in Scripture associated often with humiliation. It was forty days that Moses, Elijah, and Christ fasted.”

Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”

“The only ground which their ready faith rested on, was the fact of God sending one to warn them, instead of destroying them at once; this suggested the thought of a possibility of pardon.”

Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry.

“Jonah was grieved because Nineveh's preservation, after his denunciation, made him seem a false prophet [CALVIN].”

And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

“Jonah's impatience of life under disappointed hopes of Israel's reformation through the destruction of Nineveh, is like that of Elijah at his plan for reforming Israel (1Ki 18:1-46) failing through Jezebel (1Ki 19:4).”

But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

“Doest thou well to be angry?--or grieved; rather as the Margin, "Art thou much angry," or "grieved?" [FAIRBAIRN with the Septuagint and Syriac]. But English Version suits the spirit of the passage, and is quite tenable in the Hebrew [GESENIUS].”

Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.

“Therefore, not from sullennesss, but in order to watch the event from a neighboring station, he lodged in the booth.”

When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

“A small worm at the root destroys a large gourd. So it takes but little to make our creature comforts wither. It should silence discontent to remember, that when our gourd is gone, our God is not gone.”

Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

“But even this was not an unmitigated evil. Jonah was a type, as of Christ, so also of Israel. Jonah, though an outcast, was highly honored of God in Nineveh; so Israel's outcast condition would prove no impediment to her serving God's cause still, if…”