Jonah 1:1–16

1:1–2 In the Minor Prophets, it is common to begin a book with some form of the phrase “the word of the LORD came” to the prophet, followed by a bit more detail about the prophet himself (cf. Hos. 1:1; Mic. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Zeph. 1:1; Hag. 1:1; Zech. 1:1). This helps orient the reader to the general historical period or geographical region in which the prophet worked.

In this case, the prophet is “Jonah, the son of Amittai.” Although nothing is known of Amittai, we know that Jonah was from Gath-hepher, a town in north-central Israel, west of the Sea of Galilee (2 Kings 14:25). We also know that he prophesied during the days of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23–29), who ruled the northern kingdom of Israel in the first half of the eighth century BC. Whether the events of the book of Jonah took place before, during, or after Jeroboam’s reign is impossible to tell (cf. Introduction: Date of the Book’s Events; Occasion). For the narrator, it is enough that we know that Jonah is one of the Lord’s prophets, at work in the northern kingdom, who is now receiving a word from the Lord.

The Lord gives Jonah two basic instructions. First, he is to “go to Nineveh” (Jonah 1:2), which was located “on the left bank of the Tigris opposite present-day Mosul in Iraq.”¹ Nineveh is described as a “great city,” which certainly refers to its size (3:3; 4:11) and probably also to its importance. It served as the capital of Assyria for much of the seventh century BC but was great in size and importance from the ninth century (before Jonah’s time) until its destruction in 612 (after Jonah’s time). See Introduction: Date of the Book’s Events; Occasion. Significantly, other prophets at work either during or shortly after the time of Jonah proclaim the Lord’s justice against Assyria in general (Isa. 10:5–19; Nah. 3:18) and Nineveh in particular (Nah. 1:1; Zeph. 2:13), condemning their evil deeds and cruelty (Isa. 10:7–11; Nah. 3:1–4, 19).

It would therefore be no surprise for Israelites to hear the Lord’s second instruction to Jonah: “Call out against it, for their evil² has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2), that is, their evil deeds have come to God’s notice and call forth his response. Israelites hearing this description may well have thought of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose deeds were so evil that they attracted the Lord’s special attention as well—and ultimately, his justice (Gen. 18:20–21; 19:1–25). This comparison will be underscored in Jonah 3:4.

1:3 Jonah rebels completely against the Lord’s command, which this verse highlights in four ways. First, the narrator begins verses 2 and 3 with forms of the same Hebrew word in order to contrast the Lord’s command with Jonah’s disobedient action:

Arise (qum), go to Nineveh (v. 2)

But Jonah rose (yaqam) to flee to Tarshish (v. 3)

Second, the narrator repeats three different times that Jonah is headed to Tarshish—and thus not to Nineveh! While the exact location of Tarshish is debated, it is usually understood to be somewhere to the west,³ while Nineveh was to the east. Jonah is not simply going to a different city—he is headed in the opposite direction.

Third, the narrator says two different times that Jonah “goes down,” first to Joppa (modern-day Jaffa), then into the ship. (A third time will come in v. 5, when he “goes down” below deck.) This repetition seems more than coincidental, especially in light of the fact that Jonah is fleeing from before the Lord, seated in the heavens, before whom things “come up” (v. 2). Jonah’s “going down” thus highlights his movement away from the Lord.

Fourth, the narrator begins and ends the verse by noting that Jonah is fleeing “from the presence of the LORD.” This is the opposite of the job of a prophet, who was to stand in the presence of the Lord, the heavenly King, and receive messages from him to pass on to others (1 Kings 17:1; 18:15). This suggests that Jonah is not simply fleeing a geographical location (such as the Lord’s presence in the temple at Jerusalem); he is fleeing his responsibilities as a messenger of the heavenly King. He no longer wants to be the Lord’s prophet.

We do not yet know Jonah’s reason for fleeing; we will have to wait until Jonah 4:2 for an explanation. At this point, the narrator simply underscores the depth of Jonah’s disobedience. The Israelite prophet is acting like the pagans to whom he refuses to preach.

1:4–6 Our attention is immediately switched to the Lord, who causes a storm so powerful that the ship is on the verge of breaking apart (v. 4). It is immediately clear that there is nowhere Jonah can hide from God’s presence (cf. Pss. 33:13; 139:7–10; Amos 9:1–3). It is also clear that the Lord is the sovereign ruler of this world, the King whom nature itself obeys, because he is its maker (Job 38:12–38). We will encounter this theme several more times before the story is done (Jonah 1:17; 2:10; 4:6, 8).

The sailors respond to the storm with understandable fear (1:5a). Death is just one wave away, and so they do everything they can to survive. On the one hand, they appeal to the heavens for help, each one crying out to his god. But their cries are useless; this is the Lord’s storm, and appeals made to any other “god” will have no effect. So the sailors also begin hurling their cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. The lighter the ship, the higher it sits in the water, and the more difficult it is for waves to sink it. But it does little good; the storm is too great and the ship continues to edge closer to total destruction.

Amid this chaos, the narrator suddenly switches our attention to Jonah (v. 5b). While the sailors are above deck, crying out and working feverishly, Jonah is below deck, “fast asleep.” It is the first of many ironic contrasts highlighted between Jonah and the sailors. In this case, it is the pagan sailors who are praying while the Israelite prophet slumbers.

The contrast is emphasized when the captain finds Jonah below deck (v. 6). He begins with a rebuke: “What do you mean, you sleeper?”—the sense being, “What do you think you’re doing, being in a deep sleep at a time like this!” (cf. “What right have you . . . ?” Ps. 50:16). And then, in words dripping with irony, the captain commands: “Arise, call out to your god!” The pagan sailor is the one who has to tell the Israelite prophet to pray!

But the captain is not intending to be ironic; he is trying to avoid death. From his perspective, none of the other gods have cared about the sailors’ situation; maybe Jonah’s “god” will. The captain knows the gods cannot be forced to act (“Perhaps the god will give a thought to us”),⁴ but he wants to make sure they have at least asked the right one to do so. He “hopes to locate at least one god who has power to say to the storm ‘Peace, be still!’”⁵ This is why he commands Jonah to pray.

But Jonah remains silent, refusing to pray, and so the narrator returns our attention to the frantic sailors.

1:7–9 The sailors “are sure that among their number is a guilty individual who, like a magnet, has attracted to the ship this demonstration of divine anger.”⁶ In order to discern the guilty party, they “cast lots” (v. 7), a commonly accepted way in the ancient world to seek divine direction (cf. 1 Sam. 10:2–21; 14:40–42). As a result, the sailors finally learn what we have known all along: Jonah is the one responsible; he is the magnet attracting this divine disaster.⁷

The sailors therefore fire a barrage of questions at Jonah (v. 8). They first give him a chance to confirm that the lots were correct (“Tell us on whose account . . .”), and then they seek any information possible that will help them know what to do. For example, asking about his “occupation” might be a way to see if his work was connected to a specific deity (many occupations had a “patron deity,” much like “patron saints” today).⁸ Similarly, knowing Jonah’s land and people would give clues as to which deity might be angry with him.

Jonah does not answer all their questions, but he does tell them the most important information (v. 9)—in terms of nationality, he identifies himself as a “Hebrew,” a common way of distinguishing the Israelites from other nations (Gen. 43:32; Ex. 2:11; 1 Sam. 4:6). In terms of his god, he identifies him clearly as “the LORD,” emphasizing this by putting the Lord’s name first in the sentence in Hebrew: “And the LORD, the God of heaven, I fear, who made the sea and the dry land.”

Each part of this response is significant. First, by using “the LORD”—Hebrew Yahweh—Jonah is naming the exact deity in view.⁹ Second, by describing him as “God of heaven,” he makes clear that the Lord is the supreme deity, the one ruling over all (cf. 2 Chron. 20:6; Ps. 115:3). Third, he emphasizes the Lord’s power by describing him as the one “who made the sea and the dry land,” who is thus sovereign over them; “the Creator is the master of His creation.”¹⁰ In short, it is the Lord who is causing this storm in the sea that he himself created, and he is the sailors’ only hope of making it back to the dry land that he himself made.

But there is a final aspect of Jonah’s response that is significant: his claim that he “fears” the Lord. On the one hand, this would be a natural way for him to describe himself as a worshiper of the Lord (cf. Josh. 22:25, where the same Hb. word is translated “worship”). At the same time, true “fear of the LORD” leads to reverent obedience to the Lord’s commands (Deut. 5:29; 13:4; Josh. 24:14; etc.). This is exactly the opposite of what Jonah is doing! His claim to fear the Lord thus rings hollow.¹¹ It does not matter what he claims to believe if his behavior tells a different story.

1:10–12 The sailors are once again presented as a contrast. The narrator uses the same word for “fear” to describe their response, which could be woodenly translated, “Then the men feared with a great fear” (v. 10). Jonah claimed to “fear” the Lord and yet ran away from him in disobedient rebellion (v. 9); these men learn of the Lord and respond with a very great and real “fear.” Turning to Jonah, they cry out, “What is this that you have done!” At some point, Jonah “had told them” he was “fleeing from the presence of the LORD” (v. 10b),¹² and the men now make clear by their words their belief that this storm is nothing less than a punishment for Jonah’s sin and rebellion. In yet another ironic twist, it is the pagan sailors who rebuke the Israelite prophet.

But the sailors do not know how to appease the Lord, so they ask Jonah for advice (v. 11a). For all they know, Jonah’s god would be happy with various forms of punishment other than death. But whatever they needed to do, they needed to do it quickly! The storm was only growing worse (v. 11b).

Jonah responds by admitting that his presence is the reason for the storm and by telling the sailors to throw him overboard—to certain death—in order to escape the danger (v. 12). Commentators sometimes debate whether this demonstrates selflessness (“I’ll die so you don’t have to!”) or stubbornness (“I’d rather die than repent!”) on Jonah’s part. The second of these would be much more in keeping with what we know of Jonah so far (and what he demonstrates later on as well; 4:3, 8, 9), but perhaps the debate is centered on the wrong thing. The narrator immediately switches our attention to the sailors and focuses on their behavior for the rest of this part of the story (1:13–16). In short, it is their response to Jonah’s words that matters, and in their response the contrast between them and Jonah comes to completion.

1:13–16 The sailors’ next act is shocking. Instead of throwing Jonah overboard, “the men rowed hard to get back to dry land” (v. 13a). Why? We cannot help but assume that they are motivated by their fear of the Lord. The last thing they want to do is to make Jonah’s god any angrier, and thus they do not lay a finger on Jonah himself. But their rowing is useless. The more they row, the fiercer the storm blows against them (v. 13b), and so these pagan sailors do what the Israelite prophet will not do: they pray with great reverence, asking for the Lord’s mercy on the action they are about to undertake (v. 14). Their prayer could be paraphrased as follows:

O Lord, please do not kill us for taking this man’s life (“Let us not perish for this man’s life”). Please do not view this as the murder of an innocent person (“Lay not on us innocent blood”).¹³ For it seems that you yourself, by means of this mighty storm, have been pleased to bring us to this point and to use us to bring judgment on this guilty man (“You, O LORD, have done as it pleased you”).

In other words, “The storm provided the divine verdict and showed the penalty”;¹⁴ they are simply carrying out the Lord’s wishes.

Picking Jonah up, the sailors hurl him—just like the cargo—into the sea, which immediately ceases from raging and grows calm and peaceful (v. 15). Clearly, the Lord is powerful beyond description; he has the power to start and stop such storms at will, and the sailors’ fear of him is now complete. This is especially clear with a wooden translation of the relevant verses: at first the men “feared” (v. 5); a bit later they “feared a great fear” (v. 10); now they “feared the LORD with a great fear” (v. 16). Jonah’s claim to fear the Lord was shallow and hollow (v. 9); their fear of the Lord is deep and real.

It is therefore no surprise what they do next: they offer a sacrifice to the Lord and make vows (v. 16b). The sacrifice would no doubt be one of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord for his power and deliverance, and the vows would be promises to honor him further in the future. They may have waited until reaching a temple on dry land to do these things. But there is also clear evidence in the ancient world of sacrifices being made on ships (it was not difficult to build a makeshift altar to contain the fire), and one may presume that sacrificial animals would be the last things to jettison, since these could serve as a “flare” to get the gods’ attention.¹⁵ Either way, the final picture of the sailors is of their offering sacrifice to the Lord and making vows to worship him further in the future. It is the pagan sailors, not the Israelite prophet, who are the models of what it means to fear the Lord. The narrator does not say whether the sailors became completely orthodox in their beliefs; the focus is simply on the fact that these pagan men are now fearing the Lord and worshiping him, in stark contrast to the Lord’s disobedient and rebellious prophet.