CHAPTER 1

(862 B.C.)

GOD COMMISSIONS JONAH

¹Now the Word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying (it is thought that the Book of Jonah was written about 800 B.C., or possibly a little later. Jonah means a dove, while Amittai means true. The Word of the LORD, is a decisive statement, which claims and demonstrates the truthfulness of the entire Book. The same statement is used some seven times in the entirety of the Book, with the number seven exclaiming the totality and perfection of the statement [1:1; 2:10; 3:1,3; 4:4, 9-10].

Unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, specifies the Prophet and that he is to deliver the Message, and no one else),

²Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me. (Nineveh was the capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire, which was the dominant force in the world of that day. The Message given to Jonah by the Holy Spirit, Arise, go to Nineveh, must have been a shock to the Prophet, to say the least! No Prophet had ever been sent, as such, to the Gentiles, and especially to those as cruel as the Ninevites.

As well, the command given by the Lord, Cry against it, certainly was not a word that would endear him to the people of that city. To warn men of their sins and to tell them of Judgment to come, whether near or far, is seldom met with approbation. It is normally met with hostility and censure; consequently, many Prophets were killed.)

JONAH REFUSES AND FLEES FROM GOD

³But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the Presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the Presence of the LORD. (Tarshish was located on the south coast of Spain; it was in the opposite direction to Nineveh. Jonah was sent to the far east, while he fled to the distant west. From the Presence of the Lord, is repeated twice by the Holy Spirit, which is not by accident, but by design.)

THE LORD SENDS A STORM

⁴But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. (But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, is but the first of several phases of this nature, where the Lord took a direct hand in guiding the affairs of the Prophet.)

THE MARINERS PRAYERS

⁵Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. (There is no conscience so insensible as that of a disobedient Believer. The sailors were praying, but Jonah was sleeping. He first wentdownto Joppa, thendowninto the ship, and thendowninto the sides of the ship.

The storm was powerful, and the sailors on-board tried to do everything possible to save their ship. But the problem wasnt their goods; it was Jonah!)

JONAH TOLD TO PRAY

⁶So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon your God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. (Here the Prophets stupor is rebuked by the heathens faith. Arise, call upon your God, petitions Jonah to pray to Jehovah. If so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not, is interesting indeed! Even though these mariners worshipped many gods, they here use the word God with the article, Ha Elohim [the God], as if they have a dim notion of One Supreme Deity, which no doubt they did!)

CASTING LOTS; JONAH CHOSEN

⁷And they said everyone to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. (The lot they cast did not tell them the problem, but only of the person who could point out the problem. That person was Jonah.)

JONAHS CONFESSION

⁸Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray you, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is your occupation? and from where do you come? what is your country? and of what people are you? (Considering how they probed Jonah, the questions asked by these heathen hit at the very heart of the Plan of God, not only for Israel, but for the entirety of the human family, and for all time!)

⁹And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of Heaven, which has made the sea and the dry land. (The last phrase means, at least to the ears of these heathen, that Jehovah was not a local deity like the false gods whom they worshipped, but the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Maker and Ruler of sea and dry land. By his statement, they perfectly understood of Whom he was speaking; the next Verse proclaims their response.)

¹⁰Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why have you done this? For the men knew that he fled from the Presence of the LORD, because he had told them. (Then were the men exceedingly afraid, proclaims their understanding of the Greatness of Jehovah and the terrible risk incurred by one who offends Him. The last phrase proclaims their amazement that one who worshipped the Almighty Creator should disobey His Command. To them, this seemed outrageous and even criminal, which it was!)

¹¹Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto you, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. (By now, they are very cognizant of the fact that their plight is not ordinary, that they are facing power far beyond anything they have ever known, and that this man Jonah is the pivot point. The last phrase tells us that the storm was growing more intense even by the moment.)

¹²And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. (There is a note of resignation in this statement given by Jonah, portraying that he had come to the place of recognition regarding his disobedience, and that it would do no good to resist further. He was willing to suffer the fate that was due him because of his disobedience, which he thought was death!)

¹³Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. (The first phrase proclaims the fact that even though they were sure about him being the cause, still, they were not certain as to what his God would do to them, inasmuch as throwing him overboard would mean his certain death. The storm was now raging, and they knew that Jehovah was the cause of such; whatever they did, they did not want to further offend the Lord.

For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them, refers to the Lord bringing the waves against them to just an extent that it would stop their progress but not destroy their ship.)

¹⁴Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech You, O LORD, we beseech You, let us not perish for this mans life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You. (This prayer is remarkable, considering that they neither knew nor served Jehovah!)

JONAH CAST OVERBOARD

¹⁵So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. (So they took up Jonah, means with reverence. And cast him forth into the sea, means they did so with great regret, thinking they were certainly sending him to his doom.

Immediately this was done, the sea ceased from her raging, showing it had been sent on Jonahs account, and that they had not sinned or committed any type of wrongdoing by executing this sentence upon him.)

¹⁶Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. (There is evidence here that they accepted Jehovah because of what they had seen. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, has reference to the Truth that they feared God even more than Jonah did, at least up to this point.

And offered a Sacrifice unto the LORD, probably means that they offered up an animal immediately, which the original Text implies. Quite possibly, there was a lamb or a small calf on board, which was used for this purpose.

And made vows, means that they promised themselves to continue to offer Sacrifices unto Jehovah. Thus, their actions portray their belief in God, the renouncing of idol worship, and their conversion to Judaism.)

¹⁷Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Now the LORD had prepared a great fish, does not mean that the fish was created then and there, but that the Lord ordered it to be at a certain place and at a certain time in order to swallow Jonah.

Frank Bullen, a famous writer of the early 1900s, states in his books that he often saw in the stomach of whales whole fish, ten to twelve times the size of a man.

And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, refers to at least 72 hours, because it spoke of three literal days and three literal nights.

The historical nature of this occurrence is even more so substantiated by Christs reference to it as a figure of His Own Burial and Resurrection.)