It sprang up overnight, and died overnight.īut Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. I am angry enough to die."īut the LORD said: "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. ![]() īut God said to Jonah: "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" And he said: "I do. Jonah, exposed to the full force of the sun, becomes faint and pleads for God to kill him. ![]() Later, God causes a worm to bite the plant's root and it withers. God causes a plant (in Hebrew a kikayon) to grow over Jonah's shelter to give him some shade from the sun. He leaves the city and makes a shelter, waiting to see whether or not the city will be destroyed. ĭispleased by this, Jonah refers to his earlier flight to Tarshish while asserting that, since God is merciful, it was inevitable that God would turn from the threatened calamities. The entire city is humbled and broken, with the people (and even the animals) wearing sackcloth and ashes. God sees their repentant hearts and spares the city at that time. The king of Nineveh puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes, making a proclamation which decrees fasting, the wearing of sackcloth, prayer, and repentance. This time he travels there and enters the city, crying, "In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown." After Jonah has walked across Nineveh, the people begin to believe his word and proclaim a fast. God again commands Jonah to travel to Nineveh and prophesy to its inhabitants. Jonah Preaching to the Ninevites (1866) by Gustave Doré, in La Grande Bible de Tours God commands the fish to vomit Jonah out. While in the great fish, Jonah prays to God in his affliction and commits to giving thanks and to paying what he has vowed. Īfter being cast from the ship, Jonah is swallowed by a large fish, within the belly of which he remains for three days and three nights. As a result, the storm calms and the sailors offer sacrifices to God. The sailors refuse to do this and continue rowing, but all their efforts fail, and they eventually throw Jonah overboard. Jonah admits this and says that if he is thrown overboard, the storm will cease. A huge storm arises and the sailors, realizing that it is no ordinary storm, cast lots and discover that Jonah is to blame. Jonah is the central character in the Book of Jonah, in which God commands him to go to the city of Nineveh to prophesy against it "for their great wickedness is come up before me," but Jonah instead attempts to flee from "the presence of the Lord" by going to Jaffa (sometimes transliterated as Joppa or Joppe). Jonah and the Whale (1621) by Pieter Lastman Some modern scholars of folklore, on the other hand, note similarities between Jonah and other legendary religious and mythical figures, specifically Gilgamesh and the Greek hero Jason. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the species of the fish that swallowed Jonah was the subject of speculation by naturalists, who interpreted the story as an account of a historical incident. Īlthough the creature that swallowed Jonah is often depicted in art and culture as a whale, the Hebrew text uses the phrase dag gadol, which means "big fish". The character of Jonah son of Amittai may have been based on the historical prophet of the same name who prophesied during the reign of Amaziah of Judah, as mentioned in 2 Kings. Mainstream Bible scholars generally regard the Book of Jonah as fictional, and often at least partially satirical. ![]() Jonah is regarded as a prophet in Islam, and the biblical narrative of Jonah is repeated in the Quran. Early Christian interpreters viewed Jonah as a type for Jesus. ![]() In the New Testament, Jesus calls himself "greater than Jonah" and promises the Pharisees "the sign of Jonah", which is his resurrection. In Judaism, the story of Jonah represents the teaching of teshuva, which is the ability to repent and be forgiven by God. Subsequently he returns to the divine mission after he is swallowed by a large sea creature and then released. Jonah is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, which details his reluctance in delivering God's judgement on the city of Nineveh. Jonah or Jonas, son of Amittai, is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible from Gath-hepher of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BCE. Michelangelo's Prophet Jonah on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
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