Jonah 1:1

Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai,.... Or, "and the word of the Lord was" (l); not that this is to be considered as connected with something the prophet had on his mind and

Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Now - literally, 'And.' This 'and' marks that this book was joined on to the other sacred books-also Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the

JONAH CHAPTER 1 Jonah, sent by God to Nineveh, fleeth to Tarshish, Jonah 1:1-3: he is overtaken by a tempest, and discovered, Jonah 1:4-10, thrown into the sea, Jonah 1:11-16, and swallowed by a fish, Jonah 1:17. Now, Heb. And. The word of the Lord, which is a usual description of prophecy; what God had to speak against Nineveh, be here does reveal to Jonah, with command that he publish it to those concerned in it. Came unto, to, or, was with, Jonah; called Jonas, Luke 11:30, which signifieth a dove; he was of Gath-hepher, a town of Zebulun, 2 Kings 14:25, but no more is added, by which I conjecture it was some obscure place, to which Jonah gave more light than it could to him. Amittai; of what rank he was appears not.

Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,Ver. 1. Now the word of the Lord came] Heb. And the word For with that particle "And" the Hebrews sometimes begin a discourse, as Ezekiel 1:1 Leviticus 1:1, an elegance proper to that tongue. Howbeit Hugo Cardinalis maketh this "And," not an inceptive particle, but a copulative to many other things that were in the prophet’ s mind. Others conceive it to be continuative of some other history not now extant; or at least connective of this history with the course of his ordinary calling and prophetic employment among the ten tribes, to whom he prophesied together with Hosea, Amos, and others, but with little good success, in the reign of Jeroboam II:, a prince more prosperous than pious, 2 Kings 14:25. Jonah prophesied of his prosperity and victories; whereof when no good use was made by the house of Israel, their calamity and captivity was likewise foretold by Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah; and hence some conclude that Jonah was the first of all the prophets whose writings are extant; for he lived, say they, before the battle of Joash, King of Israel, with the Syrians, about the end of the life and prophecy of Elisha, 2 Kings 13:14. Unto Jonah the son of Amittai] Jonah signifieth a dove, but Jonah had too little of the dove in him: plenus enim fuit effraenatis motibus, saith one; as passionate a man of an honest man as you have lightly heard of, saith another. Whether he was that "mad fellow" (as those much more mad captains called him 2 Kings 9:11), that was sent to anoint Jehu, or else the widow of Sarepta’ s son raised by Elijah (as the Hebrews will have him to be), I have not to say. But that he was a servant of the Lord we find, 2 Kings 14:25, and a type of Christ, Matthew 12:40, concerning whom he prophesied, non tam sermone quam sua quadam passione (Augustine), far more plainly than if he had by voice foretold his death and resurrection. And whereas the grandees and potentates of the world get them a great name by the death and danger of many others; Ionas his omnibus superior est, saith an interpreter, Jonah surpasseth them all in this, that by his sermon at Nineveh he preserved that great city, wherein were so many thousand persons, and so much cattle, Jonah 4:11. That he was called and sent thither by God it appeareth by this text, and Oecolampadius observeth it. He was not, saith he, of them that run before they are sent; but, being sent, he refused to run, because of the hardness of the task laid upon him, as did likewise Moses and Jeremiah, till better tutored. There is less danger in refusing to run when sent than in running unsent. But when God calleth a man to the ministry, let him not doubt or despond, though at first he find not so much encouragement.

JONAH’S AND . (1) Now . . .—More strictly, And; but the English quite adequately represents the Hebrew style of beginning a narrative, whether it formed a book by itself, or merely continued an historical account. (See the opening of Exodus, Leviticus, and other historical books; Ezekiel 1:1; and comp. 1 Kings 17:1, &c.) Jonah the son of Amittai.—See Introduction.

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JONAH Chronological Notes relative to this Book, upon the supposition that the repentance of the Ninevites happened in the twenty-third year of the reign of Jehu, king of Israel. -Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3142. -Year of the Julian Period, 3852. -Year since the Flood, 1486. -Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 150. -Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 114. -Year before the first Olympiad, 86. -Year before the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 109. -Year before the birth of Jesus Christ, 858. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 862. -Twelfth year of Charilaus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae. -Fifty-second year of Archelaus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae. -Second year of Phereclus, perpetual archon of the Athenians. -Fourteenth year of Alladius Sylvius, king of the Albans. -Twenty-third year of Jehu, king of Israel. -Seventeenth year of Joash, king of Judah. CHAPTER I Jonah, sent to Nineveh, flees to Tarshish, 1-3. He is overtaken by a great tempest, 4-14; thrown into the sea, 15, 16; and swallowed by a fish, in the belly of which he is miraculously preserved alive three days and three nights, 17. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah] All that is certainly known about this prophet has already been laid before the reader. He was of Gath-hepher, in the tribe of Zebulun, in lower Galilee, Joshua 19:13; and he prophesied in the reigns of Jeroboam the Second, and Joash, kings of Israel. Jeroboam came to the throne eight hundred and twenty-three years before the Christian era, and reigned in Samaria forty-one years, 2Kg 14:23-25. As a prophet, it is likely that he had but this one mission.

Ch. Jonah 1:1-3. Jonah’s Disobedience 1. Now the word, &c.] Lit., “And the word,” &c. There is no reason to conclude from this that the Book of Jonah is only a fragment of a larger work. Many books of the Old Testament begin with “And.” In some cases (e. g. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 2 Samuel) they do so, because the writer wishes to mark the fact that the book so commencing is a continuation, a second or third volume so to speak, of what he has written before. In other cases, as here and in Ezekiel 1:1, the author begins his work with the words, “And it was,” “And it came to pass,” because, though he may have written nothing before himself, yet there is a reference in his own mind to the national records that had gone before, and he consciously takes up the thread of past history. See Maurer on Ezekiel 1:1.

Now the word of the Lord - , literally, “And, ...” This is the way in which the several inspired writers of the Old Testament mark that what it was given them to write was united onto those sacred

Jonah’s commission and disobedience, Jonah 1:1-3.Unlike the majority of the other Minor Prophets, the Book of Jonah has no formal title, Jonah 1:1 being an integral part of the narrative (compare Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1).