Jonah

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(dove). Son of Amittai. Commissioned to denounce Nineveh. His book 32d of O. T. and 5th of minor prophets, narrates his refusal, escape from drowning, final acceptance and successful ministry. Its lesson is God’s providence over all nations.

Concise Bible Dictionary:

Son of Amittai and the prophet of Gath-hepher (in Galilee, compare John 7:52⁵²They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. (John 7:52)). His prophecy is in the main the history of himself. It shows that the prophet embodied in himself the testimony of God through Israel to the Gentiles (Compare Matt. 24:14¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:14)), and also the important fact that God regards the contrition and turning from evil of a city or nation. Jonah was directed to go and cry against that great city Nineveh; but instead of obeying, he fled from the presence of the Lord. He himself tells us why he fled—he knew Jehovah was gracious: if he foretold the destruction of the city, and God spared it, he would lose his reputation (Jonah 4:2²And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. (Jonah 4:2)). It was the same with Israel: they could not bear grace being shown to the Gentiles (compare Acts 13:45⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. (Acts 13:45); 1 Thess. 2:16¹⁶Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. (1 Thessalonians 2:16)). Jonah was God’s servant, but unfaithful: his unfaithfulness brought him into the depths of judgment, but he then embodied in his own person the truth of the testimony he proclaimed, and yet while proclaiming the judgment, he was unprepared for the extension of mercy to the Gentiles. God stopped him in his course, and though he slept, the sailors called him to account. After praying to their gods, they drew lots and the lot fell on Jonah. He had to confess he was fleeing from Jehovah, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Thus Jehovah was made known to those Gentile seamen. They cried unto Him not to lay the blood of Jonah upon them, and they cast him into the sea. They feared Jehovah exceedingly, offered a sacrifice to Him, and made vows. In like manner the obduracy of the Jews only opened the door wider for grace to go to the Gentiles.

Jonah 2. God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, for he was His servant. When in the depths he cried to Jehovah, “out of the belly of Sheol:” as the remnant of Israel will plead when they feel that the sentence of death is passed upon them. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah was raised out of death, as the Lord was raised after being in the grave; and as Israel will arise out of the dust of the earth (compare Dan. 12:2²And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)).

Jonah 3. A second time Jonah receives his commission. God will not set His purpose aside because of the failure of His servant. Jonah now obeyed, and proclaimed “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The king called for a fast, put on sackcloth, and ordered all to do the same, and even to clothe the beasts with sackcloth, and he commanded all to turn away from their evil ways. God saw that the repentance was real, and He turned from the destruction that was predicted. See NINEVEH.

Jonah 4. God’s clemency greatly displeased Jonah, and he was very angry; what would become of his reputation? In his prayer he repeated what he had at first said to himself about the grace of God. He asked God to take away his life: how could he be a prophet to such a God? Alas, he was filled with his own importance. As he watched to see what would become of the city, God prepared a gourd to give him shade from the heat of the sun, and he rejoiced over the gourd; but the next day it withered, and under the power of the sun and the east wind he fainted, and again asked to die. He said to God that he did well to be angry about the gourd, but God condescended to reason with him, saying that as Jonah had had pity on the gourd which cost him nothing; so God had had pity on Nineveh, a city with more than 60,000 inhabitants who knew not their right hand from their left, besides very much cattle.

We may hope that Jonah humbled himself before being used by the Spirit to write his own history—a history which shows what the heart of even a servant of God was, and the means employed by God to teach him. Jonah is once spoken of elsewhere as having prophesied of events which came to pass in the days of Jeroboam II. This places Jonah as one of the earliest of the Minor Prophets (2 Kings 14:25²⁵He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. (2 Kings 14:25)). He is called JONAS in the New Testament where a contrast is drawn between the Ninevites repenting at the preaching of Jonah, and the Jews not repenting though a greater than Jonah was then among them. Allusion is also made to Jonah being in the fish’s belly as a type of the Lord’s burial “in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:39-41³⁹But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: ⁴⁰For 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. ⁴¹The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Matthew 12:39‑41); Matt. 16:4⁴A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed. (Matthew 16:4); Luke 11:29-32²⁹And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. ³⁰For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. ³¹The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. ³²The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Luke 11:29‑32)).

Bible Handbook:

862 B.C. – 4 Chapters – 48 Verses

Jonah was the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher in Galilee. It was probably because of the Gentile mission to which Jonah was separated that led the ecclesiastical heads of Israel in Christ’s day to a convenient forgetfulness that a prophet had arisen out of Galilee (John 7:52⁵²They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. (John 7:52)). This book is one of the earliest among the prophetic writings. We may not be able to determine with certainty that Jonah was contemporary with Elisha, the prophet of grace to guilty Israel; but we are safe in affirming that he must have nearly succeeded him. This we gather in an incidental way from 2 Kings 14:25,²⁵He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. (2 Kings 14:25) in which we are told that Jeroboam II recovered from the Syrians certain territory bordering on the Mediterranean, formerly belonging to Israel. This was in accordance with a prediction uttered by Jonah some time before.

Jonah’s unwillingness to undertake the mission of judgment to the great Gentile metropolis, reminds us of Peter’s unwillingness to bear a message of grace to the Gentiles in his day (Acts 10-11). Both the prophet and the apostle were thoroughly Jewish, and both had to be taught the lesson (and we through them) that God is sovereign in His actions, and that when it pleaseth Him to go out of the ordinary ways and channels in the exercise of a wisdom altogether His own, neither saint nor servant must say unto Him “What doest thou?” The mission of the prophet Jonah was certainly an extraordinary one. Assyria was at that time the mistress of the world, and Nineveh, her proud, wicked, and exceedingly strong and large city, was to be destroyed in 40 days, which would, of course, involve the destruction of the empire. Such was the Divine threat. But when God threatens, it is with a view to repentance. The king to the meanest of his subjects humbled themselves before God; proclaimed a fast; cried mightily to God and turned from their wickedness. On the repentance of the people, God graciously turned from His purpose, and Nineveh was spared for about a century and a half, when Nahum was commissioned to announce its total destruction. God’s ways with the Ninevites afford us valuable insight into His public and governmental dealings.

The personal history of the prophet too — which occupies the greater part of the book — is exceedingly instructive to the servant of the grace and glory of God. Jonah’s disappointment at the sparing of the city and people of Nineveh, because his credit as a prophet was at stake, is a lesson worth pondering by all serving the master. Jonah, away from God, was the source of trouble to all in the ship; on his account, Jehovah caused a “mighty tempest in the sea,” and the destruction of the poor ignorant Gentile mariners was imminent. This will be remarkably verified in the coming crisis. The Jew will be the occasion of judgment to the Gentiles in the latter days of their history. ‘The Eastern Question’ will have to be solved and settled in connection with Judah’s land and people (Zech. 14); and while, in the first place, the Jew will be the occasion of judgment to the nations, when received into Divine favour and blessing, she will become the source and channel of universal blessing, “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Jonah is also in some respects a type of the blessed Lord, first in death, then in resurrection, and then, as now, in testimony to the world (compare Jonah 2 with Matt. 12:39-41³⁹But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: ⁴⁰For 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. ⁴¹The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Matthew 12:39‑41)).

General Divisions

Chapters 1-2 — The Divine commission to destroy Nineveh. The prophet, instead of going eastward to execute the Divine command, went westward to flee from the presence of the Lord. Jonah turns from himself in the fish’s belly to the Lord, saying “Salvation is of the Lord.”

Chapters 3-4 — The second commission to destroy the city. The people’s repentance and the prophet’s great disappointment at the exceeding grace of God in averting the threatened judgment, because his word apparently comes to naught, and his credit as a prophet seriously imperilled.

Note

What is the moral value to the Christian in discussing the capabilities of existing aquatic animals of swallowing a man? The pen of Divine inspiration has written these words: “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” Whether by immediate creation or by an existing species we are not informed, but surely the word of the Lord is enough, and as if to rebuke the daring unbelief of this century, Jesus Himself reaffirms the statement of the fact (Matt. 12:40⁴⁰For 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. (Matthew 12:40)).

Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:

Number:

3124 (find all occurrences in KJV Bible)

Transliteration:

Yonah

Phonic:

yo-naw’

Meaning:

the same as 3123; Jonah, an Israelite

KJV Usage:

Jonah

Jackson’s Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names:

a dove

Potts’ Bible Proper Names:

Dove (apparently from the warmth of mating):―son of Amittai [JONAS], Jonah 1:1. {Columba}

Jonah

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

Concise Bible Dictionary:

Bible Handbook:

Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:

Jackson’s Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names:

Potts’ Bible Proper Names:

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