Holy Bible - Obsidian Study Guide

Jonah's Flight and Storm

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Jonah’s Flight and Storm

Overview

  • Testament: Old
  • Book: Jonah
  • Chapters: Jonah 1
  • Summary: Commissioned by God to preach to Nineveh in the east, Jonah boards a ship going to Tarshish in the far west; God sends a violent storm; Jonah is identified by lot as the cause; he is thrown overboard at his own request; the storm ceases, and the pagan sailors offer sacrifice and vow to Yahweh.

Details

The first chapter of Jonah is constructed around a series of ironies that establish the book’s central concern. The commission is unambiguous: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me” (1:2). Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the greatest imperial power of the ancient Near East and Israel’s most feared enemy. Jonah’s response is immediate and opposite: “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD” (1:3). The geographic symbolism is deliberate — Nineveh is northeast of Israel; Tarshish is as far west as the ancient world imagined, likely Tartessus in Spain. Jonah’s flight is as total as the physical world allows.

God’s response is to “send out a great wind into the sea” (1:4) — the verb tuyl suggests hurling, as if God threw the storm like a weapon. The storm is so violent that the ship threatens to break apart. Every sailor prays to his own god and throws the cargo overboard; Jonah, meanwhile, has gone below deck and fallen fast asleep. The ship’s captain wakes him: “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not” (1:6). The irony is complete — a pagan captain urging a Hebrew prophet to pray. The sailors cast lots to identify who has brought the calamity, and the lot falls on Jonah.

Jonah’s confession is honest: “I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land” (1:9). The sailors, more than afraid, ask what they should do with him. Jonah instructs them: “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you” (1:12). The sailors resist — they try to row to land before finally throwing Jonah overboard after calling on Yahweh not to hold innocent blood against them. The sea ceases its raging immediately. The sailors “feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows” (1:16). The first Gentile worshippers in the book of Jonah are not the Ninevites but these sailors — converted before Jonah has preached a single word of his assigned mission.

Key People Involved

  • Jonah — the reluctant prophet; flees west from an eastern commission; willing to be thrown overboard
  • The Sailors — pagan men who fear God sincerely and respond in worship when the storm ceases

Key Places

  • Tarshish — Jonah’s intended destination; the opposite direction from Nineveh; symbol of flight from God
  • Nineveh — the commissioned destination Jonah refuses; Assyrian capital

Important Verses

“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” — Jonah 1:3

“Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.” — Jonah 1:12

Cross-References

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