Jonahchapter 1
17 verses · Jonah, by tradition · 8th century BC · The Twelve
Original Language
Jonah 1— Hebrew word study · with the Hebrew tradition
In Jewish life
Jewish practice and Jewish teaching both have something to say about Jonah 1. Three things follow: where it is read, what is done because of it, and how the rabbis have taught it. The purpose is to inform a Christian reader what Jews believe and how Judaism was and is practised.
The reading
Read whole at Yom Kippur
At the afternoon service, as the Haftarah.
Jonah is read whole as the prophetic reading of the afternoon service on the Day of Atonement, followed by the closing verses of Micah on God pardoning iniquity. The reason given is the book's subject: a city that repents and is spared.
Source: Babylonian Talmud Megillah 31a, which names the reading for that service.
The verse numbers here are the ones a Hebrew Bible carries, which differ from an English Bible by a verse or two in several places. The Sephardi reading is named only where this site records a difference; communities vary beyond what is listed. What these books are, and how a Christian reader meets them →
Where the rabbis cite this chapter
3 rows sit beside their verses in the text, on 3 verses of this chapter. No row that speaks to the chapter as a whole is recorded. Every quote links to its full source.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria (sefaria.org); excerpts follow each version’s license, and every passage opens at its source.
How to read a word below: the Hebrewword, then how it sounds, then what it means, then its number in Strong’s concordance, a widely used lookup this site follows (H for Hebrew and Aramaic, G for Greek). Square brackets hold a word the English supplies that the Hebrew does not, angle brackets mark the Hebrew’s own grammatical elements that English renders as separate words, and the mark ס or פ is where the Hebrew manuscripts end a paragraph.
Go to Nineveh — and he paid the fare to Tarshish1
Jonah 1:1· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Radak on Jonah 1:1
..One may ask why this prophecy was included in Scripture. All of it concerns Nineveh, a gentile city. It does not mention Israel. There is no book like it among the Prophets. We might explain that it was written as an object lesson for Israel: Here is a gentile people, not Israelites, who readily repent. After the prophet reproves them once, they turn back from their wickedness in perfect repentance.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Sefaria Community Translation
Jonah 1:2· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:3· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
A storm, a sleeping prophet, and lots that fall on him4
Jonah 1:4· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:5· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:6· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:7· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:8· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:9· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:10· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Jonah 1:10
“What is this that you have done?” —Why have you done this, to flee from before such a Ruler?
Read it in full at Sefaria · The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
Thrown into the sea, and the sea grew calm11
Jonah 1:11· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:12· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:13· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:14· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Jonah 1:14
for the life of this man —I.e, for the sin of laying a hand upon his life.
Read it in full at Sefaria · The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
Jonah 1:15· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 1:16· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
A great fish prepared, and three days in its belly17
Jonah 1:17· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible