ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Jonah 1

1:1–3 Jonah’s Commissioning and Flight. This episode records Jonah’s call to prophesy and his flight from that call. Two questions drive the plot: (1) What will happen to the Ninevites? and (2) What will happen to Jonah?

Jonah 1:1 Son of Amittai means “son of my faithfulness.” Jonah will remain the object of God’s faithful love.

Jonah 1:2 Nineveh was on the east bank of the Tigris River, more than 500 miles (805 km) northeast of Israel. Great is used 14 times in Jonah. Nineveh was an important city (see 3:3). evil. The Ninevites were evil, and they were headed for disaster (see esv footnote).

Jonah 1:3 Tarshish was somewhere in the western Mediterranean—the opposite direction from Nineveh. From the presence of the Lord is repeated to emphasize Jonah’s reason for going to Tarshish. Went down is also a euphemism for death (e.g., Gen. 37:35). Each step away from the presence of the Lord is one step closer to “going down” to death.

Jonah 1:4–16 Jonah and the Pagan Sailors. These verses tell of Jonah’s encounter with pagan sailors. It raises the question, Who truly fears the Lord—Jonah, or the pagans? At the beginning and end the sailors “fear” (vv. 5, 16); in the middle Jonah claims to “fear” the Lord (v. 9) while the sailors actually fear (v. 10a).

Jonah 1:6 Arise, call out echoes God’s command in v. 2. not perish. A pagan, not Jonah, is concerned that people not die.

Jonah 1:9–10 made the sea. God created the very seas Jonah tries to use to flee. Jonah knows now that he cannot escape God’s presence (v. 3).

Jonah 1:15 The sailors’ actions are in harmony with God’s. As God had hurled the wind onto the sea (vv. 4–5) to start the storm, the sailors now hurl Jonah into the sea to stop the storm (v. 12).

Jonah 1:16 feared the Lord exceedingly. What started as a general fear (v. 5) grew into an intense fear (v. 10) and matured into the fear—that is, the reverent worship—of the Lord (v. 16).

Jonah 1:17–2:10 Jonah’s Grateful Prayer. Jonah’s prayer (2:2b–9) is framed by an introduction (1:17–2:2a) and a conclusion (2:10).

Jonah 1:17 appointed. This is the first of four uses of “appoint” that highlight God’s sovereign control over creation (compare 4:6–8). Fish is a general word for a sea creature, which cannot be identified further. However, a large whale such as a sperm whale could easily swallow a man whole. three days and three nights. This likely describes the actual number of days, or parts of three days (compare 1 Sam. 30:12; 2 Kings 20:5, 8). The number three has associations with return from death or near-death. Perhaps this is why Jesus compared the time between his own death and resurrection to Jonah’s time in the fish (Matt. 12:40).