Jonah

Summary of the Book of Jonah

Written: 8th century BC setting; date of writing uncertain

Jonah is the only prophetic book that is nearly all story — and the prophet himself is its problem. Jonah son of Amittai, known from 2 Kings 14:25 as a prophet in Jeroboam II's reign, is told to cry against Nineveh, a great city of the brutal Assyrian empire, and instead boards a ship for Tarshish at the opposite end of the map. Yahweh hurls a storm at the sea; the pagan sailors pray while the prophet sleeps; and Jonah, thrown overboard at his own suggestion, is swallowed by a great fish prepared by God.

From the fish's belly Jonah prays a psalm of thanksgiving that ends with the book's creed — salvation belongs to Yahweh — and receives his commission a second time. His one-line sermon triggers the largest repentance recorded in the Old Testament: the whole city fasts, from the king on his throne down to the animals, and God relents from the disaster. Chapter 4 exposes the real conflict. Jonah is furious precisely because he knew God was gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness. A shade plant, a worm, and a scorching east wind become God's final object lesson, and the book ends on his unanswered question: shouldn't I be concerned for Nineveh?

The story confronts every reader who wants God's mercy for themselves but not for their enemies. Jesus made Jonah a sign of his own death and resurrection — three days and three nights in the heart of the earth — and pointed to Nineveh's repentance as a standing rebuke to his own generation.

Jonah was written to expose the reader's own resistance to God's mercy by telling the story of a prophet angrier at grace than at sin.