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Jonah 1
- Jonah's refusal to perform his task; his attempt to escape by sea; the storm; his stay in the belly of a big fish (note the use of the verb "to go down"); his conversion
- Jonah's teachings
- Jonah's conversation with God, ending with rhetorical questions to which the prophet has no answer
The story, probably written in the fourth or third century (in any case before 190 BCE; Sirach 49.10), is full of irony. The pagans are more pious than the prophet, who is the one who in fact has to learn something about compassion and the comprehensiveness of God's love. The moral is, in fact, that God is not just the God of the Jews, but of all nations. Similar ideas can be found in the third part of Isaiah, Zechariah, and Malachi, which were all composed after the return from Babylonia.
Jonah has always been a popular story; early Christians regarded Jonah's stay in the belly of the big fish as a prefiguration of Christ's death, and the story also found its way into the Quran.
The translation offered here is the Revised Standard Version. The pictures are from a Christian sarcophagus.
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Now
the word of the
Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 
"Arise,
go to Nineveh,
that great city,
and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before
me."
But
Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord. He
went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the
fare, and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the
presence of the Lord.
But
the Lord hurled a great wind
upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the
ship threatened to break up. 
Then the mariners were
afraid, and each cried to his god; and they threw the wares that were
in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone
down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down, and was fast
asleep. 
So
the captain came and said to him, "What
do
you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call upon your god! Perhaps the god will
give a thought to us, that we do not perish."
And
they
said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose
account this evil has come upon us."
So they cast lots, and the lot
fell upon Jonah. 
Then they said to him, "Tell us, on
whose account this evil has come upon us? What is your occupation? And
whence do you come? What is your country? And of what people are
you?"
And
he said to them, "I am a Hebrew; and I
fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry
land."
Then
the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "What is this
that you have done!"
For the men knew that he was fleeing from the
presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 
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. 
He
said to them, "Take me up and throw 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."
Nevertheless
the men rowed
hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea
grew more and more tempestuous against them. 
Therefore
they cried to the Lord, "We beseech thee, O Lord, let us not perish for
this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood; for thou, O Lord,
hast done as it pleased thee."
So
they took up Jonah and threw him into
the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 
Then
the men feared the
Lord exceedingly,
and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 
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.
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Livius.Org, 2007
Revision: 12 January 2007
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