# Jonah 01 📖: Jonah Runs From God [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Jonah Overview]] | [[Obadiah 01]] | [[Jonah 02]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) ### Jonah Tries to Run from the Lord [[#Verse 01.]] The Lord’s message came to Jonah son of Amittai, [[#Verse 02.]]“Go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention.”  [[#Verse 03.]] Instead, Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish to escape from the commission of the Lord. He traveled to Joppa and found a merchant ship heading to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard it to go with them to Tarshish, far away from the Lord. [[#Verse 04.]] But the Lord hurled a powerful wind on the sea. Such a violent tempest arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break up!  [[#Verse 05.]] The sailors were so afraid that each cried out to his own god and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make the ship lighter. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold below deck, had lain down, and was sound asleep.  [[#Verse 06.]] The ship’s captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? Get up! Cry out to your god! Perhaps your god might take notice of us so that we might not die!”  [[#Verse 07.]] The sailors said to one another,“Come on, let’s cast lots to find out whose fault it is that this disaster has overtaken us.” So they cast lots, and Jonah was singled out.  [[#Verse 08.]] They said to him, “Tell us, whose fault is it that this disaster has overtaken us? What’s your occupation? Where do you come from? What’s your country? And who are your people?”  [[#Verse 09.]] He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”  [[#Verse 10.]] Hearing this, the men became even more afraid and said to him, “What have you done?” (The men said this because they knew that he was trying to escape from the Lord, because he had previously told them.)  [[#Verse 11.]] Because the storm was growing worse and worse, they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us?”  [[#Verse 12.]] He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that the sea will calm down for you, because I know it’s my fault you are in this severe storm.” [[#Verse 13.]] Instead, they tried to row back to land, but they were not able to do so because the storm kept growing worse and worse.  [[#Verse 14.]] So they cried out to the Lord, “Oh, please, Lord, don’t let us die on account of this man! Don’t hold us guilty of shedding innocent blood. After all, you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.”  [[#Verse 15.]] So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging.  [[#Verse 16.]] The men feared the Lord greatly and earnestly vowed to offer lavish sacrifices to the Lord. ### Jonah Prays [[#Verse 17.]] (2:1) The Lord sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. The first chapter, in Hebrew, begins with the word "and." It tells a story that starts in the middle of something else and moves at a fast pace. ###### Verse 01. - LORD- Yahweh. - [[Jonah]] - likely the most popular prophet at the time. Possibly trained by Elisha. ###### Verse 02. - "Get up"- this fits in with [[Jonah 03]]. God asks again. - "Great city"- means great in size (probably the largest city on Earth at the time), and in prominence. - To prophesy against something always seems to carry the premise that it can change if they repent. - Wicked- Extremely wicked and brutal people group. - Nineveh- capital of Assyria. ###### Verse 03. - Opposite direction- He literally went the complete opposite way. - Joppa- likely a gentile port city. - Tarshish- some have debated where this is because it is likely not the same place that Paul would eventually be from. It is most likely located in Spain. If so, this would have been the farthest place on the map for the people of the time. Jonah is literally running from the known world. - "Escape the Lord"- This probably means two things: - He is leaving the Temple. - He is quitting his occupation as a prophet. ###### Verse 04. - "Powerful wind"- The wind on the sea could get up to hurricane force so this would have been massive to surprise the sailors. ###### Verse 05. - The author's claim that they threw over the cargo is a big statement. The cargo is likely the main reason for the voyage. No cargo, no profit. Therefore, they would not remove the cargo unless they had no other choice. - "Jonah was asleep"- Many speculations have been made as to what this could mean. - It could have been a sign of mourning. - It could have been a sign of callousness. He did not care what happened. - It could have been a sign of feeling superior. He did not think it was his problem. - I lean toward the author showing satire. He is showing just how ridiculous Jonah was in this moment. ###### Verse 06. - "Pray to your God"- As polytheists, they probably thought the storm was the result of an unhappy god. Someone on board had angered a divine being. They hoped someone would pray and fix it. ###### Verse 07. - Casting lots was a common way to discern the divine. The thought was that God would determine where the dice went or said. It appeared to work this time. ###### Verse 08. - They are trying to figure out what he has done wrong or what "god" he has angered. ###### Verse 09. - "I am a Hebrew"- This is how these gentile sailors would have recognized his people group. - "I worship the LORD"- He uses the name Yahweh and says He is THE God. He is above all and created it all. This is why they are terrified. He did not harm a "local god." He angered THE God. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. - Since he is a prophet, they suspect Jonah will know what to do. ###### Verse 12. - Jonah realizes this is all on him. He tells them to throw him in to save them, not himself. Likely, he thought this would end in his death. He has no idea what God has planned. - This shows the courage of Jonah. He was willing to face being lost at sea to save the others. ###### Verse 13. - "Rowed"- This literally means to dig. This implies they worked really hard to get out of the storm, but to no avail. ###### Verse 14. - The storms caused them to pray to the True God. - They acknowledge God had a good reason for what He was doing. They did not see God as being unfair. ###### Verse 15. - They witnessed a miracle. ###### Verse 16. - Seeing the power of God caused them to worship God. While this is not a guarantee that they will become followers of Yahweh, it does leave open the possibility. ###### Verse 17. - Some manuscripts use this to start the next chapter. - "A great fish"- The Hebrew word here is a more general term. It basically means Sea Creature. This means it was not necessarily a whale, even though many scholars think it is likely. There are a few different sea creatures that could swallow a human whole: - Sperm Whale - Blue Whale - Whale Shark. - There have been some scientists who say this is impossible because the throat of a whale is only about the size of a man's fist. That would be a sperm whale. The size of the Blue Whale and the Whale Shark's throat is more than adequate. Also, the Bible says the Lord "arranged" it. This means God could have created a fish that was especially prepared for Jonah. - The difficulty is that so many get so hung up on the particulars that they forget it is a miracle. If God can create the universe out of nothing, He can cause a fish to swallow a person. - Also, there is another effort at satire. - Assyria worshiped two main gods. One was a goddess who was in the shape of a fish. The other was a god called Dagon, who had the head of a fish and the body of a man. The satire is a man who would eventually show up at the gates of the city, saying he had been delivered there by a fish. This would have got their attention. - It is also worth noting that a man was allegedly swallowed by a whale back in 1891 for 36 hours. When they recovered this man, he was blinded for several days, and all the pigment had been digested from his skin. This could mean that Jonah had to recover for a while when he was eventually rescued from the whale. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts - [[M0006- Assyria]] - [[Jonah]] 1. Jonah son of Amittai was from Gath-hepher in Galilee and prophesied Israel's expansion under Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25). 2. Jonah's name means "dove." 3. Nineveh was on the Tigris River, across from the modern city of Mosul in Iraq. 4. Joppa is the modern port of Jaffa, part of Tel Aviv today. 5. Many scholars identify Tarshish with Tartessus in southern Spain, at the far western edge of the known world. 6. Jonah keeps going "down": down to Joppa, down into the ship, and down into its hold (1:3, 5). 7. The sailors each cried out to their own god (1:5), showing a crew from many nations. 8. Casting lots (1:7) was a common ancient way to seek a divine answer (Proverbs 16:33). 9. By the end of the chapter, the pagan sailors fear the Lord, offer sacrifices, and make vows (1:16). 10. In the Hebrew Bible, 1:17 is numbered 2:1. ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the greater Jonah (Matthew 12:41). Jonah was thrown into the sea so the storm would stop and the sailors would live (1:12-15), and Jesus gave His life to save others and calms storms with a word (Mark 4:39). ## 🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. Jonah heard God's call and went the opposite direction (1:3). What are some ways we run from what God asks of us? 2. Jonah slept while pagan sailors prayed (1:5-6). What does this contrast reveal about Jonah's heart? 3. The Lord sent the storm and appointed the fish (1:4, 17). How does seeing God at work in hard circumstances change how we face them? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 3: Jonah runs away from the Lord and boards a ship to Tarshish. - 📖 verse 9: Jonah confesses that he worships the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. - 📖 verse 17: The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he was inside it three days and three nights. ## 🔗 Related Passages - 🔗 [[Matthew 12#Verse 40.|Matthew 12:40-41]] - The sign of Jonah and one greater than Jonah. - 🔗 [[Mark 04#Verse 37.|Mark 4:37-41]] - Jesus calms the storm. - 🔗 [[2 Kings 14#Verse 25.|2 Kings 14:25]] - Jonah son of Amittai prophesies. - 🔗 [[Psalm 139#Verse 07.|Psalm 139:7-10]] - No one can flee from God's presence. - 🔗 [[Psalm 107#Verse 23.|Psalm 107:23-30]] - God stills the storm for sailors. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Jonah 01 - SOAP|The Lord Arranged A Bad Day]] ## 📂 Internal Notes