39 Jonah

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JONAH Jonah rebels against his mission

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Ps 107:23·30 i:'

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Ac27:18 M'8:24-25p

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Ps 107:28 Jr 26:15

The word of Yahweh was addressed to Jonah son of Amittai: ·'Up!' he said 1 1 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and inform them that their wickedness has become known to me.' -Jonah decided to run away from Yahweh, and to go to Tarshish.s He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish; he paid his fare and went aboard, to go with them to Tarshish, to get away from Yahweh. -But Yahweh unleashed a violent wind on the sea, and there was such 4 a great storm at sea that the ship threatened to break up.•The sailors took ' fright, and each of them called on his own god, b and to lighten the ship they threw the cargo overboa rd. Jonah, however, had gone below and lain down in the hold and fallen fast asleep. -The boatswain came upon him and said, 'What 6 do you mean by sleeping? Get up! Call on your god! Perhaps he will spare us a thought, and not leave us to die.' -Then they said to each other , 'Come on, let us draw lots to find out who is responsible for bringing this evil on us'. ' So they cast lots, and the lot feU to Jonah. -Th en they said to him, 'Tell US,d what is your business? Where do you come from? What is your count ry? What is your nationality?' -He replied, 'I am a Hebrew, and 1 worship Yahweh, the 9 God of heaven, who made the sea and the land '. -The sailors were seized with 10 terror at this and said, 'What have you done?' They knew that he was trying to escape from Yahweh, because he had told them so. -They then said, 'What are 11 we to do with you, to make the sea grow calm for us?' For the sea was growing rougher and rougher. -He replied, 'Take me and throw me into the sea, and 12 then it will grow calm for you. For I can see it is my fault this violent storm has happened to you.' -The sailors rowed hard in an effort to reach the shore, but 13 in vain, since the sea grew still rougher for them. ·They then called on Yahweh 14 and said, '0 Yahweh, do not let us perish for taking this man's life; do not hold us guilty of innocent blood ; for you, Yahweh, have acted as you have though t right'. -And taking hold of Jonah they threw him into the sea; and the sea grew IS calm again . ·At this the men were seized with dread of Yahweh ; they offered 16 a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows."

Jonah Is saved ,MtI2:40

YahWeh had arranged tha t a great fish should be there to swallow Jonah; " 2and Jonah remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. From the belly of the fish he prayed to Yahweh, his God; he saidr>

~J~ I ; Pa 116:3 Lm3:55

'Ou t of my distress I cried to Yahweh and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried, and you have heard my voice. You cast me into the abyss, into the heart of the sea,

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and the flood surrounded me. All your waves, your billows, washed over me. And 1 said : 1 am cast out from you r sight. How sha ll 1 ever look again on you r holy Temple ? The waters surrounded me right to my throat, the abyss was all around me. The seaweed was wrapped round my head at the roots of the mountains.' 1 went down into the count ries underneath the eart h, to the peoples of the past. d But you lifted my life from the pit, Yahweh, my Go d. While my soul was fainting within me, I remembered Yahweh , and my prayer came before you into you r holy Temple. Those who serve worthless idols forfeit the grace that was theirs.

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JONA H

'But I, with a song of praise, will sacrifice to you. The vow I have made, 1 will fulfil. Salvation comes from Yahweh.'

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Yahweh spoke to the fish, which then vomited Jo nah on to the shore .

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The conversion of Nineveh and God's pardon The word of Yahweh was addressed a second time to Jonah: . 'Up !' he said 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.' -Jo nah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compa re:> it took three days to cross it. -Jo nah went on into the city, making a day's journey. He preached in these words, 'O nly forty days more> and Nineveh is going to be destr oyed'. -And the people of Nineveh believed in God;c they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. -The news reached the king of Nineveh, who rose fro m his throne, took off his rob e, put on sackcloth and sat down in as hes.s ·A procla-

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1 a. For th e Hebrews . "T ar s hlsh', cr. 1 K 10:1 +: Ps 48:7 +. represented the end of the wor ld : Jonah goes as far as he can to escape his du ty. b. Th e sailors are from differen t countries: each has his own god but believes in the powe r of oth er gods as well . c. The belief tha t a shi p is endangered by havin g a guilty man on board is found elsewhere am on g th e Ancients. d. Hebr. Insert s 'who is responsible for brin ging th is evil on us'. a gloss from v. 7 ; G reek om its. e. Th e author emphasises the pie ty of the pagan saUors: they are scandalised tha t Jonah should disobey Yahweh, v. 10, fea r to offend Yahweh by sacrificin g Jonah. v: 14, and offer worship to Jonah' s God whos e pow er they recogni se. 2 a. On this fish and the other prodigies, of which the author is fond. see Intro duction to the Prophets. b. T his song is a mosaic of Psalm -texts an d is cons tr ucted on the conv entional pattern of thanksgiving osalms: description of sufferings undergone, account of deli verance from them . For t he psalmists, gra ve da nger is a 'death' and deliverance a 'res urre ction ' ; cf here vv. 6,7,8. The sea . God's primordial 'enemy', cf. Jb 7: 12+ . is seen either as the kingdom of death itself or a t least as the way that leads to it. Hence the dramatic

expre ssion s of thi s son g which enable Jesu s, Mt 12:40 : Lk 11:30, to use the epis od e of Jo na h as a figure of his own thr ee-d ays' sta y ' in the hear t of the earth ' (Sheo l rath er th an the tom b. cf. J on 2:2· 3) ; the king dom of de ath is depict ed as a greedy mon ster tha t ca nnot hold .Christ bu t m ust let him go (t he resurrec tion) . T he a na logy be tween Christ ian b apti sm and the resurrection of C hris t has led to the use of the figu re of Jo nah in bapt ism al typoloWY. c. Proba bly the sea bed: thi s was tho ught to be the fo unda tio n on which t he earth res ted. d . T ext o bscure. Others tran slate 'I went do wn to a lan d who se bars closed o n me for ever' . 3 a. Lit. 'great befo re G od', the stro ngest for m of the super lative in Hebr .: the re is a simil a r hyp erbole in the 'it took thre e days to cro ss it', to evoke the fa buJous size of Nineveh . b. T he ' fo rty days' suggest the 40 days of the F lood or the 40 year s or Israel in the deser t : cf. also 1 K 19:8. The G reek has 'O nly th ree day s more' , cr. 2:1. c. Th e sa me contrast is draw n in the gospels betw een the conv er sion of the N inevites and the ina cred ulity of the Jews. d . T his whole description of repentance and conversion is the an tJthesis of Jr 36, cr. Introduction to the

Ezk 3:6

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J1 2:14 A m 5: 15

G n 6:6 + Jr 26:3

JONAH

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mat ion was then pr omu lgated thro ughout Ni neveh, by decre e of the king and his ministers, as follows: ' Men and beast s, herds and flocks , are to tast e nothing ; they must no t eat, they must not drink water. -A ll: are to put o n sackclo th a nd call o n God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his evil behavio ur and the wicked things he has done.• Who kno ws if Go d will no t change his mind and relent, if he will not renounce his burn ing wrath , so that we do not perish?'. God saw their efforts to reno unce the ir evil behav iour. And God relented: he did not inflict on them the disa ster which he had threatened.

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The grievance of the proph et a nd God's an swer Lk 15:28

indi gnant at thi s ; he fell into a rage.• He prayed to Ya hwe h 4 anJo dnahsaidwas, 'Avery h Yahweh, is not thi s just as I said woul d happen when I was

! still at home? T hat was why I went a nd fled to Tarshish: I knew th at yo u were ~~ 1~~6i<~i\i a God of tend erness and co mpass ion, slow to anger, rich in gracio usness, relenting I K 19:4 from evil. -So now Ya hweh, please tak e away my life, for I might as well be dead T b 3:6 as go on living.' •Ya hweh replied , 'A re yo u right to be angry ?' -Jo na h then went out of the city and sat down to t he east of the city. T here he mad e himself a shelter and sat under it in th e shade, to see what would happen to th e city. The n Ya hweh Go d arra nged th at a casto r-oil plant should grow up over Jonah to give shade for his hea d a nd soot he his ill-humour ; Jonah was delighted with the castor-oil plant. -But at dawn the next day, God arranged that a worm should attack the castor-o il plant -and it withered . •Next, when the sun rose , G od arranged that there sho uld be a sco rching east wind; t he sun bea t down 1 K 19:4 so hard o n Jo na h's head th at he was overco me a nd begged fo r dea th, sayi ng, 'I might as well be dead as go on living'. ·God sa id to Jo nah , 'Arc yo u r ight to be a ngry about the castor-oil pla nt?' He replied, 'I have every righ t to be a ngry, to the po int of deat h' . •Ya hweh rep lied, 'You are on ly upse t about a castor-oi l pla nt which cost you no labour, which you did not ma ke grow , which spro uted in a night a nd has per ished in a night. •And am I no t to feel so rr y for Ni neveh, the great city, in which t here are more than a hund red and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their r ight hand fro m their left, to say not hing of all the animals'i'«

MICA H

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word of Yahweh that was addressed to Micah of Moresheth 1TofHisheJotvisions . ha m, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kin gs of Judah . of Samaria and Jeru salem.

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Prophe ts : it is furt hermo re full of phrases c haracteristic h is se lf-pity ; and no w, 4: 10· 1 J. he exp la ins with ge nt le irony how he is though tful even for the b ru te creation. e. Hebr. adds 'and beasts'. st ill more for men a nd little ch ild ren . 'who ca n ne r te ll 4 a. T h is fin al chap ter ends wi t h the note of God's t heir rig h t hand from thei r left' , Th e who le book thu s mercy on all his crea tures. He has mercy on Jonah in prepares the way for the re ve latio n o f the gospel: Go d the sea , 2:7 . o n repentant Nineveh . on th e prophet in is love; cr; Introduction to the Prophets.

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I. ISR AE L O N TRIAL

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Is 28:1-4

The judgement of Samaria a

Listen, you peo ples, all of you. Attend, earth, and everything in it. Ya hweh" is goi ng to give evidence against you, the Lord, as he sets out from his sacred pala ce. For loo k, Ya hwe h sets out from his holy place, he comes down, he treads t he height s of earth. The mountai ns melt as he goes, t he valleys are torn apart, like wax befor e t he fire, like wate r po ur ed out o n a steep place. All this is becau se of th e crime or Jacob, th e sin of the Ho use of Israel. What is t he cr ime of Jacob ? Is it not Sa ma ria? What is the sin of the House of Judah?" Is it not Jerusa lem? I mean to ma ke Samaria a ru in in the o pen cou ntry, a place where vines will be pla nted. I will set her stones ro lling into the valley , I will lay her foundations bare. All her images are going to be shattered, all her earnings" co nsumed by fire, all her idols broken in pieces, for th ey have been collected' with prostit utes' earnings and pros titu tes' earnings they will be again.

of Jeremi ah.

Is 1:1

I a , T his or acle a gain st Sa maria, u ttered before the [:111 of t he ci ty in 721, ha s been su bseq uen tly a pp lied to Jer usalem. b. ' Ya hweh ' some Gree k MSS ; 'T he Lord Yahweh ' IIc b r. c. ' the sin of t he House o f Ju dah ' Greek, Tara.: ' t he h igh places of J u da h' Hebr.

d. The wages of the sacred pros titu tes in the rel igion of Sa maria. A m 2:7-8: Ho 4:14. cf . Dt 23:19 + . To Micah t he who le of Samaria is a pros titute as Is rael is for Hosea , Jeremiah and Ezek iel , cf H o 1:2 + . e, ' th ey hav e bee n co llect ed ' Targ.• Syr .• v ura.: 's he h as co llect ed' Hebr.

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Ps49:1 Is 1:2 C)

~ Is 26:21 Am 4;13

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Ps 97:5

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