| 1 | 1 Then the word of Yăhwēh came to Yonah son of Amittai saying, 2 “Rise, go to Neenvæh, the great city, and preach against it, because their evil has come up before my face.” |
| 3 | 3 Then Yonah rose to flee to Tarsheesh from before the face of Yăhwēh. Then, he went down to Yafo, and then he found a ship going to Tarsheesh; then he paid the fare; then he went down into it to go with them to Tarsheesh away from the face of Yăhwēh. |
| 4 | 4 But Yăhwēh had hurled a great wind onto the sea. Thus, there was a mighty storm on the sea. And the ship had been thinking to break itself up. 5 Then the seamen were afraid; then they cried out, each to his gods; then they cast the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Yonah had gone down into the hold of the vessel; then he laid down; then he went fast asleep. |
| 6 | 6 Then the captain came near. Then, he said to him, “How can you be sleeping? Rise, call to your god! Perhaps the gods will take note of us, and we will not perish!” 7 Then they said each one to his neighbor, “Come, and let us cast lots; and let us know concerning who it is that this evil is unto us.” Then they let the lots fall. Then the lot fell on Yonah.¹ |
| 8 | 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us please on what account, and concerning who is this evil unto us? What is your occupation, and from where do you come? What is your land, and of what people are you?” |
| 9 | 9 Then he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yăhwēh Almĭghty of the heavens, who has made the sea, and the dry land.” 10 Then the men feared a great fear. Then they said to him, “What is this that you have done?” For the men had known that he was fleeing from before the face of Yăhwēh since he had told it to them. 11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may calm down for us, because the sea is tossing about and stormy?” |
| 12 | 12 Then he said to them, “Lift me ¹up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will calm down for you. For I know that because of me this great storm is upon you.” 13 Then the men rowed to return to dry ¹land, but they were not able, because the sea was tossing about and stormy against them. |
| 14 | 14 Then they called out to Yăhwēh. Then, they said “Please now Yăhwēh, please do not let us perish for the soul of this man, and may you not put on us innocent blood. For you Yăhwēh have done according to what you have pleased.” 15 Then they lifted up Yonah; then they threw him into the sea. Then the sea stood fast from its raging. |
| 16 | 16 Then the men feared Yăhwēh a great fear; then they sacrificed to Yăhwēh. Then they vowed vows. |
| 17 | 17 Then Yăhwēh appointed a great fish to swallow Yonah. Then Yonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. |
| 1 | 1 Then, Yonah prayed to Yăhwēh his Almĭghty from the belly of the fish. 2 Then, he said, “I had called¹ out to Yăhwēh in my distress; then he answered me. From the womb of the grave I had cried for help. You had heard my voice. 3 ¹Thus, You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas. And the current went all around me. All your breakers and your waves had crossed over me.” |
| 4 | 4 “And I, I had¹ said, ‘I have been driven out from before your eyes, but let me again look to your holy temple.’ 5 The waters had encompassed me up to the point of taking my breath. The deep surrounded me. Seaweed was bound to my head.¹ 6 Unto the crevasses of the mountains¹ I had descended, the earth with its bars shut behind me forever. Then you made my life ascend from the pit, Yăhwēh my Almĭghty. 7 When faintness was on me, in my breath of life, I had remembered¹ Yăhwēh. Then my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.” |
| 8 | 8 “Those keeping watch over worthless idols reject their own mercy. 9 But I with a voice of thanksgiving, I desire to sacrifice to you; what I have vowed, I wish to repay. Salvation belongs to Yăhwēh.” |
| 10 | 10 Then Yăhwēh spoke to the fish. Then it vomited¹ Yonah onto the dry land. |
| 1 | 1 Then the word of Yăhwēh came to Yonah a second time, saying, 2 “Rise, go to Neenvæh, the great city. And proclaim to it the proclamation which I am telling you.” 3 Then Yonah rose. Then he went to Neenvæh according to the word of Yăhwēh. And Neenvæh had been a great city of ¹gods, a walk of three days. |
| 4 | 4 Then Yonah began to go into the city, a walk of one day. Then, he called out. Then, he said, “Yet forty days and Neenvæh is overturned!” |
| 5 | 5 Thus, the men of Neenvæh placed their faithful support¹ in the Almĭghty: Then they proclaimed a fast. Then they put on sackcloths from the greatest of them even onward to the least of them. 6 Then the word struck the king of Neenvæh. Then he rose up from his throne. Then he made his robe pass from on him. Then he covered himself with a sackcloth; then he sat down in the ashes. |
| 7 | 7 Then he cried out. Then, he said in Neenvæh, “By decree of the king and his nobles,” saying, “Let not man nor beast, cattle nor flock, taste anything nor graze, and let them drink no water. 8 And let man and beast cover themselves in sackcloths, and let them call out to the Almĭghty earnestly. And let each one turn from his evil way, and from the violence which is in their hands.” |
| 9 | 9 “Who knows? The Almĭghty may turn and will have been grieved, and will have turned from his burning anger, and we may not perish.” |
| 10 | 10 Then the Almĭghty saw their works, that they had turned from their evil ways. Then the Almĭghty was grieved concerning the calamity that he had spoken to do to them, and he had not acted. |
| 1 | 1 Then, it was evil to Yonah, a great evil. Then, he was angered by it. 2 Then he prayed to Yăhwēh. Then, he said, “Please no, Yăhwēh! Was this not my word while I was still in my country? Therefore, I had gone before to flee to Tarsheesh, because I have known that you are a gracious Gŏd, and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness, and grieving over calamity. 3 And now Yăhwēh, please take my life breath from me, because it is better for me to die than to live.” |
| 4 | 4 Then Yăhwēh said, “Is it good that you have become angry?” 5 Then Yonah went out from the city. Then he sat down on the east side of the city. Then he made for himself a booth there. Then he sat under its shade until he should see what would happen in the city. |
| 6 | 6 Then, Yăhwēh Almĭghty appointed a vine. Then, he made it go up over Yonah, to be a shade over his head, to save him from his evil. Then Yonah rejoiced over the vine with great rejoicing. |
| 7 | 7 Then the Almĭghty appointed a worm to come at the ascending of dawn, when the next day began. Then it struck the vine. Then it dried up. 8 Then it was, as the sun rose, that the Almĭghty appointed a scorching east wind. Then the sun beat down upon Yonah’s head. Then he was faint. Then he asked his soul to die. Then he said, “My death is better than my life.” |
| 9 | 9 Then the Almĭghty says to Yonah,“Is it good that you have become angry about the vine?” Then he says, “Good enough it has angered me! Good enough to be angry enough to die!” |
| 10 | 10 Then Yăhwēh said, “You have had compassion for the vine, when you have not laboured over it, and you have not made it grow, since it had been the son of a night, and the son of a night it had perished. 11 And I, may I not take pity over Neenvæh, the great city, when there are in it a great many, more than 120,000 men who have not known the difference between their right hand and their left hand, and many cattle?” |
1:7 ^ “Then the lot fell on Yonah”; One lot falls on the goat for Yahweh, and the other lot falls on the “escape” goat, which was sent away. Yonah matches the type of both goats. He was escaping from Yahweh, yet he did not escape. So he is a direct type of Messiah.
1:12 ^ “Lift me up”; connect this to Messiah being lifted up at the crucifixion. Then the sea will calm down. The sea represents the wrath of God. The sacrifice of one man will satisfy God’s punitive wrath against sin.
1:13 ^ “Then the men rowed to return to dry land”; they were trying to avoid sacrificing Yonah. Consider Pilate’s efforts to free Yeshua. The men tried to save themselves by another means, and failed. Consider those that do not come to Messiah and accept his atonement.
2:2 ^ a) “I had called” refers to the time before the fish swallowed Yonah, and after they had cast him into the sea. Almost all of Yonah’s prayer is about what happened before the fish swallowed him. b) “From the womb of the gave”; Yonah’s choice of term here is not to say “belly” as in reference the the fish. The phrase “womb of the grave” is parallel to “the heart of the seas” used in vs. 3. “From the womb of the grave I had cried for help.” Yonah refers to crying out when he was drowning in the sea before the fish swallowed him. The “womb of the grave” may be compared with the suffering Messiah went through before he was buried, and his cry equated with Messiah’s cry according to Psa.22. “Grave” is often used to denote the threat of death and suffering, and not just burial.
2:3 ^ a) I begin with “Thus,” because the waw here is concluding, and not consecutive to vs. 2.
2:4 ^ a) Begin with the pluperfect “I had said” because now Yonah is reporting what he actually said when he was in the water when he cried out. The quotation switches to the present perfect as Yonah described it just after his being thrown over. b) “let me again look to your holy temple”; the crucifixion site was in view of the Temple. c) compare Yonah’s cry with Psa. 22:1-3
2:5 ^ a) “Seaweed was bound to my head.” Compare with the linen strips Messiah was wrapped in.
2:6 ^ a) The figure “crevasses of the mountains” might be more literal “cuts of the hills”; the reference is to some undersea canyons jutting underwater out from hills. They threw him overboard in the sight of a shore they were unable to reach because of the storm, where the raging current dragged him quickly to bottom and entangled him in seaweed, in a very few minutes, and then the fish swallowed him just before he was about to drown by loss of breath. b) “you made my life ascend from the pit”; it is at this point that the fish swallowed him, and he could breathe again. The fish likely surfaced to gain more air for itself. It had to be a type of air breathing whale, and not gilled fish. c) the reference to “pit” is another messianic theme. d) compare “the earth with its bars shut behind me forever” with the grave Messiah was buried in, and the stone barring the entrance.
2:7 ^ a) “I had remembered”; Yonah is recapitulating the moment when he cried out before the fish swallowed him; and again “Then my prayer came to you” is when the answer came as the fish swallowed him.
2:10 ^ a) This figure is like that of the resurrection, coming up from death to life.
3:3 ^ a) “And Neenvæh had been a great city of gods, a walk of three days. ” Such is a literal sense. We may also put “a great city for gods”; despite all the commentators, “a great city to God” makes little sense, since it says “had been” or “has been”; why would the perfect be used, since after they repented, they would be an even greater city to the Almighty? The city was legendary for its multitude of gods, and the main issue was repentance from idolatry. Note Yonah 2:8. They had been a great city of idols, but then they had ceased to be a city of idols for at least 40 years after they repented. b) The circuit of the outer city limits was about 60 miles. Thus the three day journey is literal.
3:5 ^ a) “placed their faithful support in the Almĭghty” or literally, “made support in Almĭghty”; they certainly believed the prophet, but what they believed was that if they repented, then God might be merciful. The text makes the Almighty the object of their newfound trust and fidelity. c) “Thus, the men of Neenvæh placed their faithful support in the Almĭghty:” vs. 5a is a concluding statement. What follows is the beginning of how they came make their support in the true God. At first they knew not their right hand from the left, but believing the message they continued to be faithful and god rid of all their idols and evil practices.