Thread by @DrPJWilliams

Going to start a thread on the Biblical book of Jonah. @Tyndale_House I have heard this book read out loud in Hebrew in just 4 minutes.

The opening is unparalleled as it breaks straight into action—the action of the word of the Lord coming to Jonah.

1:2 continues the directness with a pair of imperatives, which are monosyllables in Hebrew and lack any joining word: ‘arise, go’—qum lek. The directness makes ambiguity impossible.

Jonah is to go to Nineveh, the Great City. The words ‘great’ and ‘big’ are the same word in this book. Everything is BIG: city, wind, storm, fear, fish, Jonah’s anger and his joy. We’ll see these and more as we go along.

1:2 ‘for its evil has gone up before me’. ‘Evil’ or ‘bad' is another key word. It's gone up because God is up. So if Jonah wants to get away from God, he better go down. Right?

Jonah has a really bright idea: try to escape God's presence. God says go East. He goes West. God is up. So he goes down. Down to Joppa. Down into the boat. Down into the deepest part of the boat. Surely he can't go any further down. Let's wait and see...

1:4 God hurls/throws/chucks a Big Wind. The word does not convey precise aim and winds are chaotic anyway. We might therefore think that no precise outcome will emerge. But in the next verse the sailors are already chucking stuff overboard. Soon they chuck Jonah. Same verb.

God's (seemingly imprecise) throwing of the Big Wind causes a Big Storm and the ship 'threatened to break up' (ESV & NIV). The Hebrew is Hishevah lehishaver. Wordplay. But what about the translation? Have you ever been threatened by a ship?

Consult BDB, a standard Hebrew dictionary, and it will admit that this is the only occurrence with an inanimate subject. Were it not for that, they would normally translate 'it was minded to break up'. But there's merit in attributing thought to the ship.

This is a book where the prophet thinks he can escape God. Bad idea. Things start taking on a life of their own, since the only difference between a living and an inanimate thing is God's Will. Big Fish obey. Cattle pray. The sea, as we'll see, experiences anger (1:15).

1:5 the pagan sailors are afraid. We wish Jonah was, but we have to wait till 1:9 before he says he fears God. The pagan sailors pray. We have to wait till 2:2 before Jonah prays.

In 1:3 Jonah went down (yrd) to Joppa, went down (yrd) into the boat; in 1:5 he went down (yrd) into the depths of the boat and slumbered (wyrdm). Different verbal root, but repeated consonantal sequence.

Childishly, Jonah thinks that if he closes his eyes God can't see him.

Ship's captain comes and issues command like God's initial one: 'arise ... call.' Captain says, 'perhaps God will pay attention to us'. Interesting: he thinks the storm is happening from a *lack* of divine attention.

The pagans decide to use lots—game of chance—to find culprit. Think of the physics:

God throws wind
Wind stirs storm
Storm throws boat
Boat throws people
People throw lots
(Lots of lots)
Lot lands on Jonah

And Jonah is trying to escape from the God who arranged that!

The culprit identified, they breathlessly ask him 5 questions (1:8). Jonah replies he's a Hebrew who fears the God who made heavens, sea, & dry land (1:9).

Jonah, doesn't that mean he's God of everywhere? So you knew that going West, going down & going to sleep wouldn't work.

1:5 they feared.

1:10 they feared with a BIG fear, cos he told them he was fleeing from God's presence.

'What shall we do so that the sea will be silent from against us?'

Notice again, an inanimate thing is spoken of with a word more generally used of human silence.

Who else went to sleep in a boat in a storm? Who else was wakened by anxious crew?

The similarities and differences between Jonah and Jesus in this book are suggestive.

For Jesus the storm became silent.

Inanimate wind and waves, at his command, behave as animate: they obey.

1:4 the sea is stormy.

1:11 it gets stormier.

1:13 stormier still.

Though Jonah has suggested they throw him in the sea, they don't want to.

They row—the sailors' strength vs God's.

I wonder who will win.

They have to give up, but at each point we see pagans are more righteous than the prophet.

They fear first.

Pray first.

Captain tells him to pray—he doesn't.

In 1:14 they're worried about the loss of Jonah's life.

If only Jonah were as concerned about loss of life in ch. 4.

They specifically asked not to be responsible for Jonah's 'innocent blood' (1:14).

They sacrifice and make vows (1:16).

We have to wait till 2:10 before the language of sacrifice and vows is repeated by Jonah himself.

For a 3rd time, pagans are said to fear (1:16): BIG fear.

Divine names are fascinating in this book. The mariners begin each calling to 'his god' in 1:5. Captain tells Jonah to pray to 'your g/God'.

By the end of the chapter they pray 'to YHWH', then use YHWH 2x in address, then fear YHWH & sacrifice to YHWH. Tetragrammaton 5x.

So pagans fear YHWH greatly (1:16), which surpasses what Jonah could claim in 1:9.

The Tetragrammaton dominates ch. 1, but elohim will be more commonly used by the narrator towards the end of ch. 4.

1:17 YHWH appointed
4:6 YHWH elohim appointed
4:7 & 8 elohim appointed

Why?

YHWH appointed a BIG Fish, from whose belly Jonah prays to YHWH 'his God'. The possessive is striking after 'his god' (1:5) and 'your god' (1:6).

It's reinforced by 'YHWH my God' in 2:6.

These & other joins undermine the idea that the prayer does not fit the narrative.

A problem is how sincere & spiritual we take Jonah to be in his prayer. Pagans in chs 1, 3 & 4 surpass him in response to God.

That might undermine his credibility in ch. 2.

But I’d say this literal low point seems to be his high point.

It's an edifying prayer.

In belly of Fish, he speaks as 'from the belly of Sheol'.

He thought he might be cut of from God's sight, but knows he'll see the Temple again (2:4). This connects with the theme of God's presence.

'I went down...you brought me up' (2:6) — theme verbs.

Temple again (2:7).

He vows; acknowledges God's salvation.

God has a word with the Fish who dutifully finds dry ground before regurgitating the prophet.

3:1-2 feels like déjà vu of 1:1-2.

3:3 Jonah goes to the BIG City. Its size cannot be read without thinking of Genesis 10:10-12, where 2 sets of 4 cities are mentioned.

Arguably the 2nd set together are named the BIG City.

The tetrapolis is big, even in God's view

Big = threatening

Big = ground for compassion (4:11)

Big = 3 days walk, whether that means round or through.

The 3 days it took to walk makes it all the more surprising that they repented on Day 1 (3:4).

3:5 the general populace of Nineveh repents, fasts and puts on sackcloth.

They do this, from the least to the greatest (I.e. the BIG word again).

Only after this grass roots response does the king of Nineveh hear.

He reinforces the fast by making it legally binding.

The king gets off his throne and adds ashes, where others use only sackcloth (3:6).

'by the decree (Hebrew root t'm) of the king and his nobles (the BIG word again) let ... not taste (Hebrew root t'm) anything' (3:7).

Animals fast too.
And wear sackcloth
And have to pray
And have to turn from evil and violence (3:8)

Is this just bad theology by the king of Nineveh?

Surely animals can't pray...

There's no biblical warrant to limit consciousness of God to humans.

Ps. 145:15 says 'all' look to God for food.

Explained in the next verse as every living thing.

Ps. 104:27 is similar.

Some may say this is mere poetic expression.

But Gen 6:7, 12-13; 7:21 suggest otherwise.

In an extreme reaction, the king of Nineveh decrees that humans and beasts are to pray fervently to God.

Dramatically reversing Genesis 6, both humans and beasts must turn from their violence.

His righteous response highlights the reversal. Wasn't Nineveh supposed to be bad?

3:9 'Who knows whether God will turn and repent and turn from the anger of his wrath, that we should not perish?'

'repent'—link to Gen 6:6-7.

What's the answer to the king's question? Who does know?

Clue: answer is in 4:2.

The 40 day overthrow of Nineveh (3:4) reminds us of the 40 days of rain of Genesis 7:4, but Jonah 3:10 reverses it all.

Before the Flood God repents of creating all flesh and so judges.

Here God repents of judgement when he sees their deeds (3:10; contrast Genesis 6:5).

4:1 somewhat literally: 'And it was bad to Jonah a big bad and he was angry.'

No, no, Jonah. You're not supposed to be angry.

If anyone should be angry it should be God.

Jonah is angry with God for being too kind. He votes for the No Niceness to Ninevites Party.

King of Nineveh said 'who knows whether God will relent?'

4:2—Jonah knows and it's precisely because of God's gracious character that he didn't want to preach.

Jonah quotes back to God his self-destruction to Moses in Exodus 34:6.

Digression to note that the word 'merciful' רחום / rachum in 4:2 is the same Semitic root as occurs 2x in the description of Allah which heads every Surah of the Qur'an. Each Surah calls Allah rachman & rachim. Of course biblical & qur'anic conceptions of God are quite different.

The point to note is that Jonah highlights God's mercy as a central inalienable feature of his character.

It is this characteristic which will be central in chapter 4.

Jonah, still inside the city, prays that God will take his life (4:3).

He will pray this again outside the city (4:8).

Jonah's prayer, after a people group has been successfully turned to God by a prophet, resembles that of the depressed Elijah in 1 Kings 19:4.

Elijah's prayer that he would die is the most gloriously unanswered prayer in the Bible.

He prays that he would die, yet becomes, with Enoch, 1 of 2 people who didn't die.

#divineirony

Jonah reverses this pattern by going to Sheol first (2:3) and then asking to die.

#biblicalparody

Can't help thinking of Matthew 12:40.

Jonah's prayer in 4:2 is contrasted with the sailors' prayer in 1:14.

Both begin ānnāh yhwh 'O Lord'.

ānnāh is an emotional particle.

While the pagans are concerned with the loss of one life, the prophet is upset about the salvation of life.

It's all topsy-turvy.

4:4 God asks whether Jonah is right to be angry.

Strikingly, Jonah doesn't even answer.

4:5 Jonah goes out of the city to the East hoping for the destruction of the city.

He makes his own booth for shade, but this seems inadequate so God provides a plant as shade (4:6).

The word BIG recurs. As he was angry with a BIG BAD in 4:1 so now he rejoices with a BIG JOY.

Jonah's positive emotion over this plant only highlights the bad emotion he felt in 4:1.

By highlighting 4:1 we're led to reflect on the 'bad' of the Ninevites in 1:2 (same word).

Who's really bad, Jonah or the Ninevites?

Though Jonah is in a bad way, God kindly appoints a plant 'to rescue him from his bad' (literal translation of 4:6).

God is in the rescuing business through all 4 of his 'appointed' things in this book:

1) big fish
2) plant
3) worm
4) east wind

From rejoicing in the shade of the plant Jonah goes to being struck by the heat of the sun and a scorching east wind.

His head, which he said had been wrapped with weeds in the depths of the sea (2:5), is now fully exposed (4:5, 8).

Again he asks to die (4:8).

God asks again 'Do you do well to be angry?', adding, 'for the plant' (4:9).

Jonah says he's angry enough to die. He would give his life in order for the Ninevites not to be saved. There's a clear contrast with Christ, who gave his life to save.

This all leads to God's climactic final question in 4:10-11, to which Jonah offers no response.

The lack of response makes the story open-ended.

How do we respond?

The ending of Jonah is the most surprising I can think of in any biblical book:

'and also much cattle.' (4:11)

Really?

Is that how you want to end?

God contrasts Jonah's disproportionate positive emotion about a plant which he'd not invested in and which was short-lived, with his desire that God should not pity the numerous people in Nineveh—large numbers in a state of ignorance, and many cattle.

How big was Nineveh?

One could understand 'who do not know their right hand from their left' (4:11) to be a general metaphor of ignorance, and thus the entire population to be 120,000.

One could stretch 3:3 (with Theodoret) to mean that it took 3 days to see everything.

But what about a really big Nineveh?

Take 3:3 'a journey of 3 days' to refer to diameter or circumference.

Here's E.B. Pusey taking it as the circumference of 4 cities forming a quadrilateral.

In this view 'that is the great city' of Gen 10:12 refers to the tetrapolis.

If Resen = Karemlash, Nineveh city = Kouyunjik, Nimrud = Calah, then 3 cities fit.

Khorsabad = Dur Sharrukin = Fortress of Sargon doesn't fit if it didn't exist before Sargon II.

Wiseman noted Akkadian Ninua could occur with both the URU (city) or the KI (land) determinative.

Halton argues from Akkadian texts that even a larger administrative region called Nineveh wouldn't be big enough.

academia.edu/226805/How_Big…

But the question is less what Ninua meant in Akkadian, but what 'Nineveh the Great City' meant for Hebrews. Here Gen. 10:12 weighs heavily.

Of course, the bigger we understand Nineveh to be, the more powerful the contrast of God's final question is.

The book connects the OT's most prominent statement of God's character (Ex. 34:6) via Jonah 4:2 with his compassion on animals.

This problematizes 2 views:

1. Human rule of creation may be indifferent to animal welfare
2. God's method of creation might be similarly indifferent

All of this is part of an a fortiori argument: if Jonah may spend energy on the plant, how much more may God care for numerous beasts and persons?

As the book ends, we reflect also on the lengths God has gone to for Jonah.

The book also shows how much he cares for him.

Thread on Jonah finished.

Please RT if appreciated.

Coming soon: evidence that Jesus spoke Greek.