The story of Jonah can be viewed in many ways; as a conflict between
God and His prophet, as a satire or a morality tale. Arthur
Koestler called it a ‘night journey’ to hell (1) contrasting it to
Muhammad’s night journey from the ‘farmost Temple’ (Jerusalem) to
Heaven (17:1). From a Biblical perspective it can be seen as a tale of
rebirth after three days in the belly of the fish. The Talmud in
referring to this story used the Aramaic word ‘gehenna’ (BT Erub
19a) a clear definition of hell. The Christian comparison is of Jesus’
three days buried in the earth and then resurrected.
The Book of Jonah sports the delicious irony of an unwilling prophet
who rejects a righteous mission and only accepts it when his own life
is at stake. He reasons why save heathens who are evil 9and will do ill
towards Israel), forget repentance let them die! The
confrontation is between God representing ‘Mercy’ and Jonah
representing ‘Justice’. In the second verse god states ‘go to Nineveh,
that great city, and cry against it; their wickedness has come before
me’ (1:2). There is nothing about repentance as is found among all the
other prophets. Jonah simply left in the wrong direction. When he
finally goes to Nineveh and they repent Jonah feels justice was not
done (4:2).
One might contrast his approach to that of Abraham who tenaciously
fought to save even the sinful people of Sodom.
Ultimately the people of Nineveh repent incredibly quickly after a
Jonah speaks an almost formulaic short statement not even
mentioning God’s name and are spared. In a humorous homily the ancient
Christian writer Ephraem taunts Jonah ‘What would it have profited you
if they had perished? You became famous by their repentance’. (2) He
also became famous by accomplishing his mission; not many prophets
accomplished that.
At the end of the Book of Jonah the prophet rebukes God for having
caused the death of the gourd which had provided him with shade. In the
last verse God rebukes Jonah. ‘Should I not be concerned for
Nineveh, that great city in which 120,000 persons live that cannot
discern between their right hand and their left and also much cattle’?
(Jon. 4:11)
The theology embedded in this work is splendid; repentance and mercy
are part of God’s world and humanity in its entirety are His children.
No discrimination is allowed on this issue yes even towards the
wicked and evil inhabitants of Nineveh; all receive full recognition as
God’s children. God will be merciful to all those who repent.
Jonah receives a prophetic call as a narrative story. His mission is to go to Nineveh and preach to save the people. Nineveh is a symbol of evil incarnate for the Israeli people. Thus instead of going east to Nineveh to preach repentance, Jonah flees west to the city of Tarshish. He appears to be questioning God’s commandment. He cannot comprehend why those you will become (he is after all a prophet) Israel’s enemies should be saved. God may believe in mercy for those who repent, Jonah apparently does not. The precise location of Tarshish is unknown, but for Jonah it is a refuge to enable his escape from God’s mission. It seems strange that a prophet can believe he can escape God on a ship.
Jonah buys a ticket and boards a ship. This begins the satire; Jonah
rejects God’s mission not by arguing with God but by attempting to
‘buy’ his way out. God responds to Jonah’s action by creating a storm
while Jonah is in a deep sleep. The pagan sailors on the ship are god
fearing; each prays to his god for safety. They may be similar to the
pagans in Nineveh. We are being told that even pagans can be
god-fearing. The sailors arouse the slumbering Jonah and after throwing
a lot discover that he is the cause of the fierce storm. Jonah admits
his guilt and proposes they cast him into the sea. They do and then the
sailors, pagans like those in Nineveh pray, repent and make a sacrifice
to the Lord.
Jonah does not drown; he is swallowed by a great fish. He prays
from the belly of the fish. This is presented as reality not as a
poetic metaphor. The waves and waters surround him. Chapter two is
composed entirely of Jonah’s prayer to God. Jonah is praying to the God
whose mission he has rejected. Does his near death experience imbue him
with a renewed faith in God? Jonah prays to God; ‘Out of my distress I
cried to the Lord and He heard me’ (2:2). Then Jonah asked will
’I ever see the holy Temple again (2:5) . . . I shall sacrifice to you’ (2:9). No words in the prayer repent his own sin; his refusal to act as God’s prophet. God chooses to give Jonah another chance and vomits him out of the great fish. But not before making more fun at Jonah’s expense. In Chapter 2:1 the fish is twice referred to as a male fish - ‘dag’. In 2:2 the fish changes to a female fish - ‘dagah’. This is noted by a midrashic author as follows: Jonah was swallowed by a male fish however he did not pray but simply sat passively in the belly of the fish. God vomited Jonah out of the male fish to a female pregnant fish. The physically unbearable choking environment ‘inspired’ Jonah to pray to God for his own survival. This despite, as we all know, fish are not mammals and thus do not get pregnant; perhaps that is why the fish is often called a whale who are mammals.
God re-appears to Jonah and repeats his mission statement. This time
Jonah
accepts his mission. Jonah walks to Nineveh. The city is described as so
large that it takes three days to cover its breadth and was inhabited by
120,000 persons. Jonah walks one day into the city preached only one
short verse: ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown’ (3:4). He does not even mention that God will destroy the city or discuss repentance; nevertheless the people and the King proclaim a fast and repent their evil ways. All including satirically the beasts wear sackcloth (3:8). God forgives them.
Jonah becomes the rebellious prophet of God who enjoyed total success;
but not to the people of Israel but their enemies. His short statement
to the people of Nineveh that they would be overthrown (3:4) also
turned out to be true; later on Nineveh was destroyed.
The people of Nineveh may have repented and God forgave them; however Jonah has not forgiven them. In his prayers he stated I knew You would forgive them and let them live (4:2), Jonah preferred God to act in his attribute of Judgment. God seems to be too forgiving for Jonah. The Talmud (BT Pesahim 89b) claims Jonah refusal was his shame and embarrassment that the Jews did not repent when told by their prophets but the pagan people of Nineveh did. This is consistent with a midrash that explains that Jonah first went to Jerusalem to warn the people to repent, but they ignored him. God then sent him to Nineveh, the city of ultimate sin, and they did what the people of Jerusalemites refused.
Jonah never accepted the spirit of God’s mission; even when obeying
God. He follows the letter of his mission and not the spirit.
Paradoxically he considers his success a failure. God’s was willing to
forgive Nineveh due to their repentance. Jonah is more zealous
for punishment than for mercy. Jonah will not allow evil to be
redeemed. Jonah would not accept a merciful God.
When Jonah sought his own death God answered him in what appears as
sarcasm ‘are you greatly angry’ (4:4)? Is Jonah angry because he
prophesized doom and it did not occur? He must have realized that
a prophecy of doom is conditional on the persons not repenting.
If they repent the doom is forgiven.
The story ends on a satiric/serious note. Having protected Jonah from
the heat of the midday sun in the dessert with a gourd God then
destroys the gourd. Jonah then is in the heat of the sun. God says
‘should I not spare Nineveh, that great city where 120,000 persons
live, people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and many
animals’(4:11).
Jonah can be considered a political conservative aggrieved by God’s
tolerant streak. Jonah knows that God will forgive the evil men
of Nineveh and he does not want to be part of that story. When thrown
overboard he may have expected the ‘liberal’ God to save him.
The text refers to God as ‘Elohim’ when referring to the Nineveh and as
YHVH when referring to Jonah. When God creates miraculously the gourd
to protect Jonah the text refers to YHVH-Elohim, both names (4:6). Then
Elohim prepared the worm to destroy the gourd (4:7) and Elohim made a
hot east wind (4:8) so that Jonah was about to die. Elohim then spoke
and saved Jonah (4:9). (3) After Jonah refusing to accept his
mission and accepting only under pain of death God had equated Jonah to
the people of Nineveh although unlike the people of Nineveh Jonah had
not repented.
God did to Jonah what he wanted Him to do to Nineveh. If Nineveh
deserved judgment so did Jonah for disobeying God. The shelter Jonah
built was insufficient for the problem as was Jonah’s single statement
to the people of Nineveh (3:4). But Jonah chose that brief one verse.
He could have said what the non-Jewish King of Nineveh said ‘let
everyone renounce his evil ways . . . perhaps God may relent and
renounce his wrath’ (3:8-9). The lesson is that moving just slightly in
God’s direction may invoke his mercy. God will be the God of compassion
as he was to Abraham.
Jonah is the son of Amittai; his ‘father’s’ name comes from the Hebrew
root meaning truth. Truth is closely related to Judgment not mercy.
When one dies the Jewish response is Baruch dayan emet’ – Blessed be
the Judge of Truth; after death mercy is no longer relevant; truth and
judgment may be. There is a midrash that the child Elijah resurrected
is Jonah; the mother says of Elijah that he is ‘a man of God . . . and
emet - truth’ (1Kg. 17:24). The author of the midrash connected the
‘emet’ in Elijah to the name of Jonah’s presumed father. He is
suggesting that Elijah is the metaphorical ‘father’ of Jonah. Elijah is
a zealot interested in truth not mercy (4) Perhaps Jonah followed
this ‘father’.
It seems that the message of the Book is to counter to Jonah’s
attitude; that God will always forgive sinners who repent. This is
precisely why the book of Jonah is read on Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement. Wicked sinners whether they be Jews or Gentiles - can
always repent. Repentance and mercy are an inherent part of God’s
world.
1. Koestler, Arthur, The Act of Creation, (London, Penguin Books,
1964) pg. 360.
2. Bickerman, E. Four Strange Books of the Bible, (Schocken Books,
N.Y, 1967) pg. 15.
3. Walton, J.H., The Object Lesson of Jonah 4:5-7, Bulletin for Biblical
Research 2, 1992, (Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, In).
4. See the author’s article on Elijah in the Jewish Bible Quarterly (July 2004).