Jonah, son of Amittai, was a prophet who was from Gath-hepher in the northern kingdom (Israel) (2 Kings 14:25b, Jonah 1:1). He was prophet when Jeroboam II, son of Joash, was king of Israel, and Amaziah, son of Joash, was king of the southern kingdom (Judah), see Kings of Judah and Israel. (2 Kings 14:23–25).
The Lord called Jonah to go to Nineveh, and call out against it, for their evil had come up before God (Jonah 1:1–2, Nahum 3:1–4). Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, which eventually conquered the northern kingdom (Israel). The Babylonian Empire later conquered the Assyrian Empire and then conquered Judah.
The Assyrian Empire was greatly hated by the Jews. Jonah knew the Lord, that he is a gracious and forgiving God, see God's Attributes, and that there was a risk that he would forgive them if they repented if he went to Nineveh and prophesied about their evil (see below). Jonah therefore fled from the Lord, because he didn't want them to repent and be forgiven. He tried to go in the opposite direction than to Nineveh. Jonah found a ship going to Tarshish. (Jonah 1:3, 4:2).
We can't flee from the presence of God (Psalm 139:7–10). The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Jonah told the men on the ship that the reason for the storm was because he fled from the Lord's presence. He then told them that the sea would calm down if they threw him overboard. When they did, the sea stopped raging. Then the men feared the Lord, they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
(Jonah 1:4–16). See To Fear the Lord in Fear of Man.
The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah lay in the belly for three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17 (2:1 in some translations)). Similarly, Jesus would be in the tomb for three days and three nights before his resurrection from
the dead, something Jesus foretold his disciples on several occasions, see
2) Passover (Jewish Easter) in When Did Jesus Die and when Was He Born?
Jesus here refers to Jonah being in the fish as a historical event. For example, the fish could have been a sperm whale that sometimes moves in the Mediterranean.
(In ancient times, no distinction was made between fish and marine mammals.)
God created a situation in the fish so that Jonah could breathe and pray.
Jonah prayed to the Lord from the belly of the fish (Jonah 2:1–9 (2–10 in some translations)). And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto the
dry land (Jonah 2:10 (11 in some translations)).
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time and told him to go to Nineveh and call out against it the message that the Lord was going to tell him. Jonah obeyed God and did it. Jonah had learned obedience to God the hard way, see
The Ten Commandments. He called out that Nineveh would be overthrown after 40 days. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and clothed themselves in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to
the least of them. (Jonah 3:1–5).
The king of Nineveh took off his robe, clothed himself in sackcloth, and sat down in ashes. He issued a proclamation that neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, would taste anything, that man and beast would be covered with sackcloth and that they would call out mightily to God. Each one should turn from his evil way and from the violence that was in his hands. They repented. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he didn't do it. (Jonah 3:6–10).
God said through Jeremiah: "At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot it, to tear it down, or to destroy it. If that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I planned to bring on it." (Jer 18:7–8).
This mercy of God displeased Jonah. He told the Lord that this was why he fled from him, for he knew that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. God answered Jonah that Jonah felt sorry for a plant for that he hadn't made to grow. Shouldn't God have pity on
Nineveh where there were more than 120,000 people and many animals.
(Jonah 4:1–11).
Jesus said of Nineveh: "The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here." (Mat 12:41, Luk 11:32).
See also Confronting Meaningless Religion.
However, Nineveh returned to its evil behavior a hundred years later,
see The Book of Nahum.
See also The Prophet Books in the Old Testament.
