Jonah Preaches to the Ninevites, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Old Testament · Book 32 of 66
Jonah
Jonah tells how the prophet ran from God's call to preach to Nineveh, was swallowed by a great fish, and then obeyed. The city repented, and the book ends with God questioning Jonah's anger at his mercy.
Jonah tells how the prophet ran from God's call to preach to Nineveh, was swallowed by a great fish, and then obeyed. The city repented, and the book ends with God questioning Jonah's anger at his mercy.
What is Jonah about?
Jonah is the story of a prophet of Israel whom the LORD sent to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and who sailed the other way. A storm, a lot and a great fish bring him back. From inside the fish he prays in the words of the Psalms and ends: “Salvation is from the LORD!” (2:9). The word comes a second time, and this time he goes. The whole city fasts and turns, and God spares it. Jonah is angry at that mercy, and the book ends with the LORD's question to him, left unanswered.
All 4 chapters
Every chapter of the book, in one grid. Each cell opens that chapter.
- The flightChapter 1
- The prayer from the deepChapter 2
- The city that turnedChapter 3
- The prophet who was angryChapter 4
The colour is the movement of the book the chapter carries, one chapter each, and every cell opens that chapter's Study level.
Who wrote it, where, when, for whom, and why?
The book tells its story about Jonah son of Amittai rather than in his voice, and it does not name its writer (1:1). The only other Old Testament mention of him, quoted here, names the same father and his town: Jonah the prophet from Gath-hepher, through whom the LORD promised that Jeroboam would restore Israel's border. Chapter 2 is given as his own prayer from inside the fish (2:1). Jesus names him as the prophet Jonah (Matthew 12:39).
This Jeroboam restored the boundary of Israel from Lebo-hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word that the LORD, the God of Israel, had spoken through His servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher.
2 Kings 14:25, Berean Standard Bible.
Jonah comes from Gath-hepher in Galilee. He goes down to Joppa on the coast and boards a ship for Tarshish, the far port in the west (1:3). Nineveh, the great city he is sent to, lay on the Tigris far to the east, and the book calls it exceedingly great (3:3). The last chapter is set on a hill east of the city (4:5).
Second Kings sets Jonah in the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, who reigned forty-one years in Samaria (2 Kings 14:23 to 25). That places him with Amos and Hosea in the eighth century BC, before Assyria destroyed Samaria. The book itself gives no year, and when it was set down in the form we have is argued from its language, which the Hard Questions lower on this page take up.
The book names Nineveh as the city the LORD cares about, but it was kept and read in Israel, among the Twelve. Its hearers knew Assyria as the power that would end the northern kingdom (2 Kings 17:6), and the book leaves them the LORD's question about Nineveh (4:11).
Jonah gives the reason he ran: he knew the LORD to be gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion, and one who relents from sending disaster (4:2). Those are the words the LORD proclaimed of himself to Moses (Exodus 34:6). The book shows that mercy reaching sailors and a city outside Israel, and asks whether the LORD's own prophet will share it.
Sources. Jonah 1:1, 1:3, 2:1, 3:3, 4:2, 4:5 and 4:11; 2 Kings 14:23 to 25; 2 Kings 17:6; Exodus 34:6; Matthew 12:39. Every verse is read in the Berean Standard Bible.
How is Jonah arranged, and what is it for?
The four movements the book falls into, one chapter each, then what it teaches and what it was written to do.
- The flightChapter 1, 17 verses, the turn at 1:17
Sent east to Nineveh, Jonah sails west for Tarshish, and the storm and the lot find him.
- The prayer from the deepChapter 2, 10 verses, the turn at 2:9
From inside the fish Jonah prays in the words of the Psalms, and the fish gives him back to dry land.
- The city that turnedChapter 3, 10 verses, the turn at 3:10
The word comes a second time, Jonah goes, and the whole city from the king down fasts and turns.
- The prophet who was angryChapter 4, 11 verses, the turn at 4:11
Jonah is angry at the mercy, and God teaches him with a plant, a worm and a wind.
The theme
The LORD rules the wind, the sea, the lot, the fish, the plant, the worm and the east wind, and every one of them does what he says at once. The one who argues is his prophet. The book sets the prophet beside the pagan sailors and the city of Nineveh, who fear God and turn, and it shows the LORD's mercy reaching them in the words he had spoken of himself to Moses (4:2). Jonah knows those words and does not want them spent on his enemies.
The purpose
The book was told to Israel. It shows God sparing the capital of the empire that would destroy the northern kingdom, at the word of an Israelite prophet who wanted it destroyed, and it ends with the question God put to him. The reader is left to answer it in Jonah's place.
Two commissions, one difference
- The word cameThe first time
Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,
Jonah 1:1The second timeThen the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
Jonah 3:1 - The command to NinevehThe first time
“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”
Jonah 1:2The second time“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”
Jonah 3:2 - Jonah roseand fled, then and wentThe first time
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. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
Jonah 1:3The second timeThis 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.
Jonah 3:3
What the LORD appointed (4)
- 1The fish1:17
“the LORD had appointed a great fish”
to swallow Jonah and keep him; the flight.
- 2The plant4:6
“the LORD God appointed a vine”
to shade Jonah's head; the prophet who was angry.
- 3The worm4:7
“God appointed a worm”
to kill the vine at dawn; the prophet who was angry.
- 4The wind4:8
“God appointed a scorching east wind”
to beat on Jonah until he grew faint; the prophet who was angry.
The flight, Jonah 1
What the text says in these 17 verses, and the pages they open on.
The word of the LORD comes to Jonah son of Amittai: go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach against it (1:1 to 2). Jonah gets up and runs the other way, down to Joppa and onto a ship bound for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD (1:3). The LORD hurls a great wind on the sea. The sailors cry each to his own god and throw the cargo overboard, while Jonah sleeps below (1:4 to 5). The captain wakes him, the lot falls on him, and he tells them he is a Hebrew who worships the God who made the sea and the dry land (1:6 to 9). He tells them to throw him in. They row for land first, then pray to the LORD, cast him over, and the sea grows calm. The sailors fear the LORD, sacrifice and make vows (1:10 to 16). The chapter ends with the fish the LORD appointed and three days and three nights inside it (1:17).
Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
- Study
Jonah 1the commission, the ship, the storm, the lot and the fishShow the summary and 3 pagesShow summary, 3 pagesHide the summary
'Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it'. And Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah, the wrong direction with a paid ticket. Everything after is downward: down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into sleep. Jehovah hurls a great wind; pagan sailors pray and jettison cargo while the prophet snores, until the captain wakes him: 'How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God.' The lot exposes him and his own confession convicts him: 'I worship the LORD, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.' Thrown overboard, the sea stills, and a prepared great fish swallows him three days and three nights.
On this chapter (3)
- The sign of Jonah
The sign Jesus gave his generation, argued in full.
- What was the great fish, and what does the Hebrew phrase mean?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Jonah 1:3
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- The sign of Jonah
Down and down: the flight as a stair
- 1Down to Joppa“He went down to Joppa” (1:3)וַיֵּ֨רֶד vaiyered, and he went down
- 2Down into the ship“went aboard to sail for Tarshish” (1:3)וַיֵּ֤רֶד vaiyered, and he went down
- 3Down into the hold“Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel” (1:5)יָרַד֙ yarad, he had gone down
- 4Into the sea“cast him into the sea” (1:15)וַיְטִלֻ֖הוּ vaytiluhu, and they threw him
- 5Into the deep“You cast me into the deep” (2:3)וַתַּשְׁלִיכֵ֤נִי vatashlikheni, and you have thrown me
Characters (4)
Who the text names. A name with a page carries its door.
- Jonah son of Amittai
The prophet the word comes to, who runs from it (1:1 to 3).
- The captain
Wakes Jonah and tells him to call on his God (1:6).
- The sailors
Pray to their own gods, then to the LORD, and end by sacrificing to him (1:5, 1:14 to 16).
- The great fish
Appointed by the LORD to swallow Jonah (1:17).
Places (4)
Where the chapter stands.
- Gath-hepher
Jonah's town in Galilee, in Zebulun (Joshua 19:13).
- Joppa
The port Jonah goes down to (1:3).
- Tarshish
The far port in the west Jonah paid to reach (1:3).
- The sea
Where the LORD hurls the wind and Jonah is cast in (1:4, 1:15).
Themes (3)
What the chapter raises, each on its own page where one stands.
- The word of the LORD
The word that comes to Jonah and does not let him go (1:1).
- Flight and return
Jonah runs from the presence of the LORD and cannot leave it (1:3, 1:10).
- The sign of Jonah
The three days in the fish, which Jesus made a sign.
Where the New Testament uses these chapters (3)each marked as a quotation or an allusion, with the evidence
- Explicit quotationJonah 1:17 at Matthew 12:39 to 40. Asked for a sign, Jesus gives only the sign of Jonah: three days and three nights in the fish, and the Son of Man three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Held by Jesus, as Matthew records him, who names the prophet and repeats the three days and three nights of 1:17. The store's cross references join the two verses.
- Explicit quotationJonah 1:17 at Matthew 16:4. Jesus refuses a sign a second time and names the sign of Jonah again. Held by Jesus, as Matthew records him. He names the sign without the three days; the store's cross references join the verse to 1:17.
- Explicit quotationJonah 1:17 at Luke 11:29 to 30. Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, and the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation. Held by Jesus, as Luke records him. Luke names the sign and not the three days; the store's cross references join 11:30 to 1:17.
The prayer from the deep, Jonah 2
What the text says in these 10 verses, and the pages they open on.
From inside the fish Jonah prays to the LORD his God (2:1). He tells it as a prayer already answered: he called from the belly of Sheol and was heard (2:2). The LORD cast him into the deep, the breakers swept over him, and he thought himself banished from God's sight, yet he looked again toward the holy temple (2:3 to 4). The waters closed over him, seaweed wrapped his head, and he went down to the roots of the mountains, but the LORD brought his life up from the pit (2:5 to 6). As his life faded he remembered the LORD, and his prayer reached the temple (2:7). He sets those who cling to idols against himself, who will sacrifice with thanksgiving and pay his vows (2:8 to 9). The LORD speaks to the fish, and it puts Jonah out on dry land (2:10).
But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the LORD!”
- Study
Jonah 2the prayer from inside the fish, and the dry landShow the summary and 3 pagesShow summary, 3 pagesHide the summary
A psalm prayed from inside the fish, stitched almost entirely out of the Psalter. 'From the belly of Sheol I called for help, and You heard my voice.' He describes drowning as God's own doing ('all Your breakers and waves swept over me') and finds in the worst moment the one act of faith the book has shown so far: 'I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.' Weeds wrapped about his head, the bars of the earth closing on him, and still: you have brought up my life from the pit. The prayer ends in the book's thesis: 'Salvation is from the LORD!'
On this chapter (3)
- The sign of Jonah
The sign Jesus gave his generation, argued in full.
- Is Jonah history or parable, and what did Jesus's use of the sign of Jonah settle?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Jonah 2:9
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- The sign of Jonah
The prayer in the words of the Psalms
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.
Jonah 2:2In my distress I cried to the LORD, and He answered me.
Psalm 120:1Joined in the store: Calling in distress, and the answer.
For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me.
Jonah 2:3Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.
Psalm 42:7Joined in the store: All Your breakers and waves.
At this, I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’
Jonah 2:4In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
Psalm 31:22Joined in the store: Cut off from Your sight.
As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple.
Jonah 2:7Although my spirit grows faint within me, You know my way. Along the path I travel they have hidden a snare for me.
Psalm 142:3Shared wording: The life or the spirit growing faint.
But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the LORD!”
Jonah 2:9Salvation belongs to the LORD; may Your blessing be on Your people. Selah
Psalm 3:8Joined in the store: Salvation belongs to the LORD.
Characters (2)
Who the text names. A name with a page carries its door.
- Jonah at prayer
Prays from inside the fish and gives thanks before he is out (2:1 to 9).
- The great fish
Gives Jonah back to dry land at the LORD's word (2:10).
Places (3)
Where the chapter stands.
- The deep
The heart of the seas, the roots of the mountains, and the pit (2:3 to 6).
- The holy temple
Where Jonah looks and where his prayer reaches (2:4, 2:7).
- The dry land
Where the fish puts Jonah out (2:10).
Themes (2)
What the chapter raises, each on its own page where one stands.
- Prayer from the deep
A prayer made in the words of the Psalms from the lowest place in the book.
- Salvation from the LORD
The confession the prayer ends on (2:9).
No New Testament passage quotes or names this chapter.
The city that turned, Jonah 3
What the text says in these 10 verses, and the pages they open on.
The word of the LORD comes to Jonah a second time with the same command, and this time he gets up and goes (3:1 to 3). Nineveh is an exceedingly great city. Jonah goes one day's walk in and announces that in forty days the city will be overturned (3:3 to 4). The people believe God, proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least (3:5). The king leaves his throne, puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes, and his decree binds man and beast to fast, call on God and turn from violence (3:6 to 8). The king does not know what God will do, only that he may relent (3:9). God sees what they did and does not bring the disaster (3:10).
When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
- Study
Jonah 3the second commission, the fast, the king's decree and God's relentingShow the summary and 4 pagesShow summary, 4 pagesHide the summary
'Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time': the same commission to the same city, and this time he goes. Nineveh is an exceeding great city of three days' journey; Jonah walks one day in and preaches eight words: 'Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!' No promise of mercy is offered, and mercy comes anyway. 'And the Ninevites believed God', fasted, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least; the king rose from his throne, sat in ashes, and decreed that every man turn from the violence in his hands. God saw their works and relented. Jesus says these men will rise in the judgment (Matthew 12).
On this chapter (4)
- Repentance
What turning to God is, through the whole of Scripture.
- Did Nineveh's repentance happen, and what does the Assyrian record show for the reign in question?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- What does the three-day journey of 3:3 describe?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Jonah 3:5
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- Repentance
How Nineveh turned, in five stations
- 1The people believedJonah 3:5
“the Ninevites believed God”
- 2The king roseJonah 3:6
“he got up from his throne”
- 3The decreeJonah 3:7 to 8
“Let each one turn from his evil ways”
- 4The hope statedJonah 3:9
“God may turn and relent”
- 5God relentedJonah 3:10
“He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them”
Characters (3)
Who the text names. A name with a page carries its door.
- Jonah the preacher
Goes into the city a day's walk and announces the forty days (3:3 to 4).
- The king of Nineveh
Leaves his throne for sackcloth and ashes and orders the fast (3:6 to 9).
- The Ninevites
Believe God and fast from the greatest to the least (3:5).
Places (2)
Where the chapter stands.
Themes (2)
What the chapter raises, each on its own page where one stands.
- Repentance
The city turns from its evil ways and from violence (3:8, 3:10).
- Mercy to the nations
God spares a city outside Israel when it turns.
Where the New Testament uses these chapters (2)each marked as a quotation or an allusion, with the evidence
- Explicit quotationJonah 3:5 at Matthew 12:41. The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment and condemn this generation, because they repented at Jonah's preaching. Held by Jesus, as Matthew records him. He names the Ninevites' repentance of 3:5 to 10 without quoting its words; the store's cross references join the verse to 3:5.
- Explicit quotationJonah 3:5 at Luke 11:32. Luke sets the same saying beside the Queen of the South, who came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Held by Jesus, as Luke records him, in the same words as Matthew; the store's cross references join the verse to 3:5.
The prophet who was angry, Jonah 4
What the text says in these 11 verses, and the pages they open on.
Jonah is greatly displeased and angry (4:1). He prays, and gives the reason he fled: he knew God to be gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, the words the LORD spoke of himself to Moses (4:2, Exodus 34:6). He asks to die, and the LORD asks whether he has any right to be angry (4:3 to 4). Jonah goes out east of the city, builds a shelter and waits to see what will happen (4:5). God appoints a vine to shade him, then a worm that kills the vine at dawn, then a scorching east wind, and Jonah asks again to die (4:6 to 8). God asks him a second time about his anger, now over the plant (4:9). The book ends with the LORD's question: Jonah cared about a plant he did not make, so should God not care about Nineveh, its people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and its cattle (4:10 to 11)?
So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”
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Jonah 4Jonah's anger, the vine, the worm, the wind and the last questionShow the summary and 3 pagesShow summary, 3 pagesHide the summary
The revival that delights heaven infuriates the preacher. Jonah's prayer finally admits why he ran: 'I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion' (the Exodus 34 creed quoted as an accusation) followed by 'please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.' God asks, 'Have you any right to be angry?' then teaches by object lesson: a prepared gourd for shade, a prepared worm that kills it, a prepared sultry east wind. Jonah pities the plant he did not grow. God's closing question ends the book unanswered: should not I have regard for that great city, and its sixscore thousand who cannot discern their right hand from their left?
On this chapter (3)
- Love your enemies
The mercy asked of those who have enemies.
- Why does the book end on a question?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Jonah 4:2
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- Love your enemies
Four questions, and the last left open
- 1Jonah asksJonah 4:2 to 3
“is this not what I said while I was still in my own country?”
The LORD answers with a question
- 2The LORD asksJonah 4:4
“Have you any right to be angry?”
Jonah leaves the city to watch
- 3God asks againJonah 4:9
“Have you any right to be angry about the plant?”
Jonah answers: I do
- 4The LORD's last questionJonah 4:10 to 11
“So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh”
No answer is recorded
Characters (2)
Who the text names. A name with a page carries its door.
- Jonah, angry
Angry at the mercy and asking to die (4:1 to 3, 4:8 to 9).
- The plant and the worm
The vine God gives for shade and the worm he sends to kill it (4:6 to 7).
Places (2)
Where the chapter stands.
- East of the city
Where Jonah builds his shelter to watch Nineveh (4:5).
- Nineveh
The great city God asks Jonah to care about (4:11).
Themes (3)
What the chapter raises, each on its own page where one stands.
- The creed of 4:2
The words the LORD spoke of himself to Moses, quoted as a complaint.
- Love your enemies
The mercy Jonah did not want for Nineveh.
- Mercy to the nations
God's care for a city of people and cattle (4:11).
No New Testament passage quotes or names this chapter.
- Author
- The book is anonymous; Jonah son of Amittai is the subject (1:1; cf. 2 Kings 14:25)
- Date
- Jonah's historical ministry c. 8th c. BC under Jeroboam II; book's composition disputed
- Audience
- The covenant community tempted to narrow the reach of mercy
Where do readers disagree?
One list: the readings with their holders, and what the evidence does not settle.
Is Jonah history or parable, and what did Jesus's use of the sign of Jonah settle?
The Sign of Jonah→- A history, told to teach. Held by T. Desmond Alexander, 'Jonah and Genre', Tyndale Bulletin 36 (1985).
- A sign Christ himself explained. Held by Augustine in his Letter to Deogratias, letter 102 of his letters (written in 409), answering the pagan objection that a man could not live three days inside a fish.
- A parable about a historical prophet. Held by Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah (1976).
What the evidence does not settle: Whether Jesus's comparison requires the events to have happened or uses a story his hearers knew; the Gospels record the comparison and give no ruling on the book's form.
The argument in full
A history, told to teach. The book opens as the historical books open, its prophet is dated by Second Kings, and Jesus sets the men of Nineveh at the judgment beside the Queen of the South, people who lived and did what the record says (Matthew 12:41 to 42).
A sign Christ himself explained. Christ explained the sign when he said none would be given but the sign of the prophet Jonah, so the account is read as he read it.
A parable about a historical prophet. The tight symmetry of the two halves, the irony of a prophet angry at mercy, and a repentance of a whole city with an unnamed king read as a story told to make a point, hung on the name of a known prophet.
Which Jonah is this, the prophet of 2 Kings 14:25 in the reign of Jeroboam II?
- The prophet of Gath-hepher under Jeroboam. Held by Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on 1:1, who places him at Gath-hepher in Zebulun in the reign of Jeroboam the Second.
- The son of the widow of Zarephath. Held by Jerome in his Commentary on Jonah, prologue (written in 396), who reports it as the teaching of the Hebrews.
- A known name given to a later story. Held by Hans Walter Wolff, Obadiah and Jonah (1986).
What the evidence does not settle: Scripture gives his father, his town and one prophecy, and no record outside Scripture names him, so nothing outside the book fixes when he went to Nineveh.
The argument in full
The prophet of Gath-hepher under Jeroboam. Both passages give Jonah son of Amittai, a prophet, and 2 Kings adds his town and the word he spoke about Israel's border.
The son of the widow of Zarephath. The tradition makes Jonah the boy Elijah raised from the dead (1 Kings 17:17 to 24), which would make his return from the deep his second.
A known name given to a later story. The writer took the one prophet of Jeroboam's reign that 2 Kings names and set a story of a much later time around him.
What was the great fish, and what does the Hebrew phrase mean?
- A great fish God appointed, of no named kind. Held by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on 1:17, who say it was not created for the purpose but appointed in God's providence.
- A shark of the Mediterranean. Held by Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on 1:17.
- The modern whale story is no evidence. Held by Edward B. Davis, 'A Whale of a Tale: Fundamentalist Fish Stories', Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 43 (1991).
What the evidence does not settle: Neither the Hebrew of 1:17 nor the Greek ketos, a sea creature, at Matthew 12:40 names a species, so what kind of creature it was cannot be known from the text.
The argument in full
A great fish God appointed, of no named kind. The Hebrew dag gadol means a great fish, and the verb manah, appointed, is the one used of the vine, the worm and the wind (4:6 to 8).
A shark of the Mediterranean. A whale's throat will scarcely take a man, while the shark is common in that sea and has a mouth and stomach large enough to swallow one.
The modern whale story is no evidence. The report of a sailor named James Bartley swallowed by a whale in 1891 and found alive cannot be traced to the ship's records, so it cannot be cited in support of the book.
Did Nineveh's repentance happen, and what does the Assyrian record show for the reign in question?
Nahum, and how Nineveh ended→- A turning in a time of Assyrian weakness. Held by Donald J. Wiseman, 'Jonah's Nineveh', Tyndale Bulletin 30 (1979).
- They believed the word Jonah spoke was God's. Held by John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748 to 1763), on 3:5.
- No outside record of the event. Held by Jack M. Sasson, Jonah, Anchor Bible 24B (1990).
What the evidence does not settle: Assyrian kings recorded victories and buildings, so the silence of their records neither confirms nor denies a turning at Nineveh; the city fell in 612 BC, as Nahum foretold.
The argument in full
A turning in a time of Assyrian weakness. The Assyrian eponym lists record revolts, plague and the eclipse of 763 BC in the reign of Ashur-dan III, the kind of omens that could move a city to fast.
They believed the word Jonah spoke was God's. The people believed there was a God and that the one in whose name Jonah came was the true God, and faith that came by hearing was the spring of their turning.
No outside record of the event. No Assyrian text records a fast at Nineveh or a turning to Israel's God, and the book names neither the king nor the year.
Why does the book end on a question?
- God appeals to a pity Jonah already felt. Held by John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), on 4:11.
- The question is put to Israel. Held by Terence E. Fretheim, The Message of Jonah: A Theological Commentary (1977).
- The innocent set against a shrub. Held by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on 4:11.
What the evidence does not settle: The book records no answer from Jonah, so whether he came to share God's pity is left open.
The argument in full
God appeals to a pity Jonah already felt. If Jonah pitied a weed, the LORD will not be less merciful to a great city, its infants and its cattle, over all of which his tender mercies stand.
The question is put to Israel. The book was told to Israelites who resented God's mercy to their enemies, and the open question leaves them to answer in Jonah's place.
The innocent set against a shrub. The children and the cattle are far above the plant Jonah grieved for, yet he was careless of their destruction.
What does the three-day journey of 3:3 describe?
- The circuit of a very great city. Held by John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), on 3:3, who gives Nineveh a compass of four hundred and eighty furlongs, greater than Babylon.
- Nineveh with its district. Held by Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Minor Prophets (English translation 1868), on 3:3.
- The length of an official visit. Held by Donald J. Wiseman, 'Jonah's Nineveh' (1979).
What the evidence does not settle: The walls of Nineveh proper enclosed about twelve kilometres, a day's walk, and the verse does not say whether it measures the walled city, its district or the visit.
The argument in full
The circuit of a very great city. Ancient writers called Nineveh larger than Babylon, so three days is the time to go round it.
Nineveh with its district. Genesis 10:11 to 12 names Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah and Resen together as the great city, and a district of that size takes about three days to cross.
The length of an official visit. A visit to a city of that rank took a day to arrive, a day for the business and a day to return, and the phrase gives the visit and not the size.
The Text and the Spade
- Nineveh at Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunusexcavated by Austen Henry Layard from 1847; Assyrian occupation across the Iron Age
The mounds opposite modern Mosul carry the palaces, walls, and libraries of the Assyrian capital, published in Layard's own Nineveh and Its Remains (1849). The excavated remains belong mostly to the eighth and seventh centuries BC, a generation and more after Jonah's visit, so they establish the city rather than the episode. Assyrian royal inscriptions record victories and building works, and no Assyrian king recorded a national humiliation, so the silence of those texts about Nineveh's repentance carries no weight either way. The second mound is called Nebi Yunus, the prophet Jonah, and the shrine that stood on it was destroyed in 2014.
- The walls of Nineveh and the size of the citySennacherib's expansion, c. 700 BC
Nineveh proper was enclosed by a wall circuit of roughly twelve kilometers around some 750 hectares, with fifteen gates. A city of that size is crossed in a day on foot. This is the evidence behind the reading that the three days of 3:3 describe the administrative district around the capital, the four-town cluster Genesis 10:11-12 already names, rather than the walled city alone.
- The Assyrian eponym chronicle and the eclipse of 763 BCthe eclipse fixed astronomically to 15 June 763 BC
The Assyrian lists that name a year by its officeholder record a solar eclipse in the eponymy of Bur-Sagale, and the same decades carry notices of plague and internal revolt. The lists anchor Assyrian chronology, which is why they matter to any date for Jonah. They also describe a stretch of Assyrian weakness in exactly the generation the book belongs to. This is background rather than evidence about the episode, and it is worth naming that no record outside Scripture reports the repentance of the city.
- Gath-hepher, the prophet's hometownIron Age settlement, identified with Khirbet ez-Zurra near el-Meshhed
Second Kings 14:25 places Jonah's home in the tribal territory of Zebulun, a few miles from Nazareth. The location matters to one line in John's Gospel, where the Pharisees tell Nicodemus to 'Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee' (John 7:52). A prophet had come out of Galilee, and his book was in their own scroll of the Twelve.
The pages Jonah opens on
Studies24
- The Sign of Jonah
- Repentance
- Love Your Enemies
- Calming the Storm: Mark 4:35-41
- Irony in Scripture: More Than the Speaker Knows
- Jonah: History or Parable?
Show the next 6 titles
People and groups3
Sources for this page
The movements, the chapter entries, the figures and the Context are read off the text of Jonah. The Hebrew words of the descent are read from the store's word data, and the links between the prayer and the Psalms from its cross references. The works behind the readings under Where do readers disagree are Jerome, Commentary on Jonah (396); Augustine, Letter 102 to Deogratias (409); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748 to 1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Minor Prophets (English translation 1868); Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah (1976); Terence E. Fretheim, The Message of Jonah (1977); Donald J. Wiseman, 'Jonah's Nineveh', Tyndale Bulletin 30 (1979); T. Desmond Alexander, 'Jonah and Genre', Tyndale Bulletin 36 (1985); Hans Walter Wolff, Obadiah and Jonah (1986); Jack M. Sasson, Jonah (1990); and Edward B. Davis, 'A Whale of a Tale', Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 43 (1991). Every verse quoted on this page is the Berean Standard Bible, read from the store.