Jonah · chapter 1 of 4
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Jonah 1 tells how the Lord sends the prophet Jonah to preach against Nineveh, but he flees by ship toward Tarshish. The Lord sends a great storm, the sailors cast lots and discover that Jonah is to blame. He asks to be thrown into the sea; the storm calms, the sailors fear the Lord and a great fish swallows Jonah for three days and three nights.
Jonah is an unusual prophetic book: nearly all of it is narrative and its hero resists his mission. According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah son of Amittai prophesied in the time of Jeroboam II. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the empire Israel feared, and that is the root of the conflict: God sends a prophet to announce his judgment to the enemies of his people.
The word of the Lord comes to Jonah son of Amittai: arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for its evil has come up before God. Jonah arises, but to flee from the presence of the Lord. He goes down to Joppa, finds a ship going to Tarshish, pays the fare and boards with the sailors, going in the opposite direction from Nineveh.
The Lord hurls a great wind upon the sea and a mighty tempest arises so fierce that the ship threatens to break up. The sailors are afraid, each cries out to his own god, and they throw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. Meanwhile Jonah has gone down into the inner part of the ship and is fast asleep. The captain wakes him and asks him to call on his God, in case God will take notice and they will not perish.
The sailors cast lots to find out on whose account this evil has come, and the lot falls on Jonah. They ask him who he is, where he comes from and what his people are. Jonah answers that he is a Hebrew and fears the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. The men are terrified, because he has told them he is fleeing from the presence of the Lord. As the sea grows more tempestuous, they ask what to do, and Jonah tells them to pick him up and throw him into the sea, because he knows the storm is because of him.
The men row hard to return to land, but cannot. So they cry out to the Lord that they not perish for this man's life nor be held guilty of innocent blood. They take Jonah, throw him into the sea and the storm stops. The men fear the Lord, offer him a sacrifice and make vows. The Lord had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord sends Jonah to Nineveh, the great city, to cry out against its wickedness. The mission points to a foreign capital, which surprises the reader: God cares about peoples outside Israel.
Jonah arises, but to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. The prophet who should obey chooses to go the opposite way, and goes down to Joppa, into the ship and into the depths.
Jonah confesses that he is a Hebrew and fears the Lord, the God of heaven, maker of the sea and the dry land. It is a correct confession spoken by one who is fleeing, and it underlines that no one can escape the God who made the sea.
The Lord appoints a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he stays inside three days and three nights. God does not abandon the disobedient prophet; he rescues him even from his own mistake. Jesus used this episode as a sign in Matthew 12:40.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: His father was Amittai, and the Lord sent him to Nineveh, the great city. — Jonah 1:1-2
Answer: Toward Tarshish, and he took the ship at Joppa. — Jonah 1:3
Answer: In the inner part of the ship, fast asleep. — Jonah 1:5
Answer: They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. — Jonah 1:7
Answer: To throw him into the sea so the storm would calm. — Jonah 1:12
Answer: Three days and three nights. — Jonah 1:17
Jonah 1 shows what happens when we flee God's will: we drift farther and farther until something stops us. In a Sunday school class you can ask which calling or which person we are avoiding out of prejudice, fear or comfort, and what excuses we use not to obey.
The chapter also surprises with the role of the sailors: they are the ones who pray, fear the Lord and show compassion for Jonah's life. Sometimes people who do not know God show a spiritual sensitivity that those who know him have lost. And even in the prophet's failure, God remains faithful: he appoints a fish, not to punish but to save.
Jonah 1 ends with the prophet swallowed by a fish, but alive. Chapter 2 will show his prayer from there and how the Lord rescues him, preparing the second sending to Nineveh.
Chapter 1 does not explain it; Jonah himself will say so in Jonah 4:2. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, Israel's enemy, and Jonah knew that God is compassionate and feared he would spare the city. His flight reflects his disagreement with God's mercy toward enemies.
The text does not specify. Many place it at the far western end of the Mediterranean, perhaps in the south of present-day Spain. What matters for the story is that it lay in the opposite direction from Nineveh, which was to the east.
The Hebrew text says great fish, without specifying the species. The key point is that the Lord appointed it, that is, it was the work of his providence. In Matthew 12:40 Jesus recalls it as a sign of his own death and resurrection.