Welcome back to my study/review of The Book of Jonah. If you missed the previous parts of this study, you can find them HERE.
Jonah 1:11-17
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
_________________________________
The crew learns that the storm is the result of Jonah’s actions, but they do not know immediately what they should do. (Is it wise to throw even a misbehaving holy man into the sea? Wouldn’t that also anger his God?) We’ll pick these questions up in The Pulpit Commentaries, at the note for verse 11:
What shall we do unto thee? They recognize that the tempest was sent as a judgment on account of Jonah’s sin; at the same time, believing him to be a prophet of Jehovah, under whose wrath they were suffering, they ask his advice in this emergency; if it was a crime to receive him, what shall they do to him to expiate the offence and to appease the anger of God? That the sea may be calm unto us; literally, may be silent from upon us, so as no longer to bear down upon us. Wrought, and was tempestuous; literally, was going and was tempestuous; Septuagint, Ἐπορεύετο καὶ ἐξήγειρε μᾶλλον κλύδωνα, “The sea was moving and lifting the surge still more;” Vulgate, ibat et intumescebat. That is, according to the Hebrew idiom, “grew more and more tempestuous” (comp. Exodus 19:19; Proverbs 4:18).
It was not enough to merely identify the problem. Something had to be done about it. Jonah gives them an answer as to how he needs to be dealt with in verse 12. Cntinuing in The Pulpit Commentaries:
Jonah, brought to a better mind, perhaps divinely inspired, pronounces his own sentence. “I know,” he says, “that the fault is mine, and deserves death, therefore take me up, and cast me forth into the sea.” He will not he his own executioner, but will patiently bear a death righteously inflicted by others, whoso safety he was endangering by his continued presence.
The note gives Jonah credit here for returning to his “better mind,” but is it not also possible that he decided it would be better to die than to return to the direction of Nineveh? What would have happened if Jonah had told the crew that they needed to return him to the port?
We are not given that answer. However, at least initially, the crew tries to spare Jonah’s life. The text says that they tried hard to return to shore. Here it becomes clear that even if Jonah had hoped to die, by being tossed into the sea, that God also intends for him to be tossed into the sea. The storm is too fierce to return him to shore. From Ellicott’s Bible Commentary:
(13) Rowed hard.—This is a sufficient rendering of the Hebrew verb, though it misses the metaphor. In every other instance of its use the word refers to the violence employed in breaking through a wall or enclosure. (See Ezekiel 8:8; Ezekiel 12:5; Ezekiel 12:7; Job 24:16; Amos 9:2; and compare the use of the derivative noun in Exodus 22:2; Jeremiah 2:34.) The figure of forcing the ship through the great wave wall is very striking. The Latin infindere sulcos and our ploughing the main are kindred metaphors.
It is a fine trait in these sailors that they will not obey the prophet’s request to throw him overboard till all efforts to save the ship have been tried.
(14) Wherefore they cried unto the Lord.—There is presented here, as throughout the book, a strong contrast between the readiness of the heathen to receive religious impressions, and the stubbornness and obstinacy of Israel.
For this man’s life . . .—i.e., for taking it. The law of retaliation was as familiar to them as to the Hebrews (Deuteronomy 19:21). (Comp. 2 Samuel 14:7.)
For thou.—The original is more impressive: For Thou, Jehovah, as it hath phased Thee, Thou hast done. The storm, the lot, the request of the prophet himself, all showed that the sailors were but instruments in carrying out the Divine purpose.
The crew tried to keep Jonah alive, because they feared God, and when this became impossible, they asked God to not hold them guilty. As the note points out, this book is fascinating in its depiction of gentiles as quick and eager to receive religious instruction from God, via His prophet, and then to act upon it. That trait is in contrast to Jonah himself, who is obstinate in his refusal to do as instructed.
It is not hard to see why Christians view this book as a Typological foreshadowing of Christianity itself. Jesus also made the Jonah comparison Himself, after all, referring to His own death and resurrection as “the sign of Jonah.” In the case of Jesus’ resurrection, just as with Jonah, what followed? Gentile converts. Continuing on, back again in The Pulpit Commentaries:
They took up, with a certain reverence. Ceased from her raging; literally, stood from its anger; Septuagint, ἔστη ἐκ τοῦ σάλου αὐτῆς, “stood from its tossing.” The sudden cessation of the storm showed that it had been sent on Jonah’s account, and that the crew had not sinned by executing the sentence upon him. Usually it takes some time for the swell to cease after the wind has sunk: here there was suddenly a great calm (Matthew 8:26).
Feared the Lord. They recognized the supernatural element in the transaction, and conceived an awe and fed, of Jehovah, who had wrought these wonders Offered a sacrifice unto the Lord. Many commentators think that they sacrificed on reaching shore, as they had thrown the cargo overboard, and would have had no animal to offer. The Chaldee renders accordingly, “They said that they would offer sacrifices.” But the text implies that they sacrificed immediately on the cessation of the storm. They may naturally have had some animal on board fit for offering. And made vows. Vowed to make other offerings when it was in their power. Henderson compares Virgil, ‘AEneid,’ 3.403, etc.—
“Quin, ubi transmissae steterint trans aequora classes
Et positis aris jam vota in litore solves.”
“And when thy fleet hath safely crossed the seas,
And, raising altars on the shore, thy vows
Thou shalt perform.”It has been supposed that these sailors embraced Judaism and became proselytes. At any rate, they showed themselves in the light of believers on this occasion.
One of the mysteries of the crew here, and of the Ninevites later, is what repentance and worship looks like from them, toward the God of Israel, at least beyond the moments as described in the text. Did they continue to worship Jonah’s God?
In verse 17, we get one of the most famous moments in all of Scripture. From Ellicott:
(17) Now the Lord.—In the Hebrew, Jonah 2:0 commences with this verse.
Had prepared.—The pluperfect is misleading. Render appointed, and comp. Jonah 4:6-8, where the same word is used of the gourd, the worm, and the east wind. The Authorised version renders the word accurately in Job 7:3; Daniel 1:5-10. Previous special preparation is not implied, still less creation for the particular purpose. God employs existing agents to do His bidding.
A great fish.—The Hebrew dag is derived from the prolific character of fish, and a great fish might stand for any one of the sea monsters. The notion that it was a whale rests on the LXX. and Matthew 12:40. But κῆτος was a term for any large fish, such as dolphins, sharks, &c. (See Hom. Od. xii. 97.) And unless we have previously determined the question, whether the Book of Jonah is intended by the sacred writer to be a literal history, or an apologue founded on a history or a parable pure and simple, tota hœc de pisce Jonœ disquisitio, as an old commentator observes, vana videtur atque inutilis. The explanations given by commentators divide themselves into those of a strictly præternatural kind, as that a fish was created for the occasion; or into the natural or semi-natural, as that it was a ship, or an inn bearing the sign of the whale; or that it was a white shark. (For the last hypothesis see all that can be collected in Dr. Pusey’s commentary on Jonah.) In early Christian paintings the monster appears as a huge dragon.
Three days and three nights.—See Matthew 12:40, New Testament Commentary.
fish = דָּג dâg, dawg; or (fully) דָּאג dâʼg; (Nehemiah 13:16), from H1711; a fish (as prolific); or perhaps rather from H1672 (as timid); but still better from H1672 (in the sense of squirming, i.e. moving by the vibratory action of the tail); a fish (often used collectively):—fish.
The Bible uses the sea/the abyss and sea monster, dragon, and serpent imagery to refer to Satan (and opposition to God more generally), throughout the Bible. These things represent chaos whereas God represents a righteous order. Jonah thus appears to spend 3 days and 3 nights, in the mouth of a great fish – symbolic of God’s great spiritual enemy – before he returns to the surface and preaches repentance to the Ninevites.
For more on that topic, I direct you to the following from Christian Old Testament scholar, Dr. Michael S. Heiser:
And also here:
When we return to the text in chapter 2, we’ll see how Jonah fairs within the great fish.