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Jonah

God's Scandalous Mercy

ZONDERVAN

Jonah 1:1 – 4a

A. A Silent Escape from God's Mercy

Main Idea of the Passage

Jonah 1:1 – 3 introduces a surprising commission from God from which Jonah flees. His flight, however, takes a downward direction, and Jonah begins descending toward the realm of chaos and death.

Literary Context

The book of Jonah's opening phrase, "YHWH's word came to Jonah, Amittai's son" (wayehî debar yhwh 'el yônâ), serves as a common introduction to episodes in biblical narrative that focus on a divine commission and its fulfillment. Only in the book of Jonah, however, does this phrase stand at the beginning of a book. In its other occurrences, the phrase serves to introduce a new episode in a narrative already in progress.

The effect of this uncommon opening on the reader is somewhat disorienting. One enters this book with little sense of the precise location or time of the narrative. The suppression of historical and geographical details is atypical for the openings of prophetic books and may be a rhetorical device designed to facilitate the narrative's appropriation by audiences of any historical and geographical setting (cf. Introduction, pp. 30 – 36).

This abrupt introduction also serves to highlight the divine word as the precipitating event that sets the narrative in motion. The reader is immediately confronted with a challenging word from YHWH and perhaps senses some of Jonah's surprise at God's unexpected and unwelcome commission. This opening may also alert the reader to a prior relationship between Jonah and YHWH (cf. 2 Kgs 14:23 – 25). Jonah is already a prophet called into YHWH's service, but his vocation now broadens beyond the borders of Israel, borders incidentally that Jonah had announced would return to their Solomonic dimensions under the reign of Jeroboam II (2 Kgs 14:23 – 25).

The form and wording of 1:1 – 3 recur at 3:1 – 3 when YHWH reissues the com mission that Jonah initially disobeyed. These two texts serve as pillars for the book's structure and establish the parallelism that exists between the two halves of the book. Jonah 1:1 – 3 sets the stage and introduces the major characters and the major conflict that will drive the plot toward its first peak episode (2:1c – 11 [1:17c – 2:10]). The outline below demonstrates the relationship of Jonah 1:1 – 3 to the larger structure of the first main section of the book.

Structure and Literary Form

The opening words, "YHWH's word came to Jonah, Amittai's son, as follows ...," help readers identify the genre of this passage. Since the phrase is so common in prophetic narratives, many scholars designate it as a formula for Hebrew narrative called the "prophetic word formula." Typically this formula indicates the divine origin of a call or commission. Its presence at the beginning of 1:1 – 3 followed by YHWH's command to Jonah to go to nineveh indicates that this text is a commission narrative. Commission narratives are a common feature of prophetic accounts and often serve as their starting point (cf., e.g., 1 Sam 16; 1 Kgs 17:2 – 6)

Commission narratives in the Old Testament follow a typical pattern that finds its classical expression in YHWH's commission of Moses in Exodus 3 – 4. First, YHWH commissions an individual to a particular task (divine commission). Following this commission, the individual usually objects that he is inadequate for the task in question (objection to commission). God responds to these objections with both a rebuke and reassurance of divine presence and power (rebuke and reassurance). At this point, God typically engages in a ritual or sign act that confirms the commission and prepares the individual for the task (ritual/sign). Finally, God describes or clarifies the commission (clarification of commission).

Not every commission narrative contains each of these elements, and a number of variations are possible, but the elements are relatively stable, especially the divine commission, the objections to the commission, and the description/clarification of the commission. In the case of Jonah, the commission narrative is protracted due to Jonah's unexplained flight and extends beyond 1:1 – 4a into the next two episodes (1:4b – 2:1b; 2:1c – 11). The table below offers a side by side comparison of the typical commission narrative (Exod 3 – 4) with Jonah 1:1 – 3:2.

While Jonah 1:1 – 4a fits this general scheme, it also departs from the typical commission narrative in a significant way. Jonah's objection to the commission is nonverbal. He simply flees the commission without comment or explanation. This response to the divine commission interrupts the pattern so thoroughly that the commission narrative gives way to YHWH's pursuit of Jonah in the second and third episodes (1:4 – 2:11), finally resuming in Jonah 3:1 – 2, where the original commission is repeated. While episodes 2 and 3 at first sight appear to derail the commission narrative, they may represent ironic expressions of the divine rebuke/reassurance and the ritual/symbolic act, thus advancing the commission narrative, though in an unexpected way, to its conclusion — the clarification of the commission (3:1 – 2).

Following YHWH's commission, Jonah's rebellious actions are succinctly reported in a keyword chiasm (inverted structure) that draws attention to the destination of Jonah's desperate flight (1:3). The effect of this textual arrangement is demonstrated below.

The first key word is the mainline narrative verb "he descended" (wayyered). The repetition of this verb indicates that Jonah's westward journey is, spiritually speaking, a downward journey. The verb recurs in the next unit (1:5e), serving to tie the two episodes together with this common theme. The next key words are "Tarshish" and "away from YHWH's presence." They normally occur together and provide a significant clue as to the author's assessment of Jonah's journey. Jonah foolishly tried to escape his calling by fleeing in the opposite direction, to the remotest place he knew — a place where YHWH had not yet been revealed (cf. Isa 66:19) and, presumably, where no challenging word from YHWH would come.

Explanation of the Text

1. The Commission: A Challenge to Parochial Prophecy (1:1a – 2d)

The book of Jonah places the divine word at the front (1:1) and center (3:1) of its narrative. Immediately the reader, like Jonah, is confronted with a challenging message from YHWH commanding an unprecedented prophetic mission. That YHWH's word is the precipitating event for all that follows in the narrative is evident by its predicate — "it came" (wayehî). This verb is actually a form of the verb "to be," and it is frequently used in Hebrew narrative to mark the onset of a new episode within a story. In the case of 1:1 the verb introduces a word-event formula announcing a divine commission. Only in 1:1, however, does this formula stand at the very beginning of a biblical book. This unusual introduction, therefore, highlights the sudden and unexpected nature of the commission. YHWH's word comes without warning, and it launches a journey Jonah has never anticipated.

The phrase "YHWH's word" (debar yhwh) occurs frequently in the Old Testament (242 times), especially in the prophetic literature. In fact, "almost everywhere it occurs debar yhwh is a technical term for the prophetic word of revelation." The phrase may be applied to a single utterance, an extended prophetic speech, an entire book, a revelatory act, or even to the entirety of God's revelation (cf., e.g., Ps 33:4).

With few exceptions, the phrase "YHWH's word" introduces an oracle that the prophet is to convey on YHWH's behalf to a particular audience, usually YHWH's covenant people, Israel. In the present case, however, it introduces a royal commission issued directly from YHWH to his servant Jonah. Similar instances of this unusual construction with the phrase "YHWH's word" occur in the Samuel and Elijah narratives (cf. 1 Sam 15:10; 1 Kgs 17:2, 8; 18:1; 21:17). These examples bear close resemblance to the commission found in Jonah 1:1 – 3 and suggest a close relationship between these prophetic accounts and the narrative of Jonah.

Jonah's name (yônâ) is the Hebrew word for "dove." Personal names derived from animal nomenclature are well attested in Hebrew as well as in other Afro-Asiatic languages. Their significance, however, is unknown. The prophet Jonah is the only Old Testament character to wear this name.

His father's name, 'amittay, appears to derive from the noun 'emet ("truth" or "faithfulness"), followed by an abbreviated form of the divine name YHWH, yielding a meaning like "YHWH is faithful/true." The mention of Jonah's surname clarifies that he is the same prophet who predicted Jeroboam's successful expansion of Israel's borders (2 Kgs 14:23 – 25) and may serve to anchor the story that follows to that historical situation.

YHWH's commission to Jonah is an embedded discourse in which imperatives, rather than narrative verbs, serve as the backbone of communication. The shift to direct discourse is marked by the words "as follows," corresponding to the infinitive le'mor, which typically introduces quoted speech.

As is often the case in divine commissions, YHWH's speech betrays a sense of urgency. The imperative "Up!" (qûm), when closely linked with other commands, frequently serves as an interjection or exclamation underscoring the force of the following imperatives. It appears to have that function here, indicating the need for haste in carrying out the following two commands: "go" (lek) and "condemn" (qera'). The JPS and NRSV capture the idea with the expression "Go at once to nineveh." The reason for this urgency will become clear in the causal clause following the actual commission (1:2d).

The identification of Nineveh as YHWH's target audience is remarkable on two counts. First, the commissioning of a prophet to visit and to preach to a foreign nation was unprecedented in Hebrew prophecy. Most prophets delivered oracles of judgment addressed to foreign nations, but they did so rhetorically as part of their message to Israel to serve as harbingers of Israel's deliverance from foreign oppression (e.g., Obadiah and nahum), to warn Israel/Judah of the disastrous consequences of dependence on alliances with foreign nations (Isaiah 13 – 24), or to humble Israel by reducing her to the status of one of the nations in need of YHWH's judgment (e.g., Amos 1 – 2). Against this background, YHWH's commission to Jonah to travel to nineveh and deliver an oracle of doom directly to the nation in question is truly unique. This commission breaks new ground in Hebrew prophecy.

Second, nineveh, though historically a city of some renown, was not, during Jonah's time, the capital of Assyria. Nonetheless, it is treated throughout the book as the representative city of the growing Assyrian empire despite the fact that Kalhu actually served as the administrative center in the early eighth century. Why then this urgent call to go to the more peripheral city of Nineveh? What about Nineveh warranted YHWH's and, consequently, Jonah's, attention?

The tradition regarding Nineveh's origin recorded in Gen 10:11 offers a significant clue. The text reads as follows: "From that land, Ashshur emerged and built Nineveh, that is the broadest city, and Calah, as well as Resen between Nineveh and Calah, which is the capital city." Interestingly, nineveh heads the list of cities attributed to Assyria's ancestor, Ashshur, which implies that Nineveh was the first of the great city states on which Assyria was founded. Thus, Nineveh was closely associated with the origins of Assyria as a nation and frequently served to represent Assyria as a whole as well as the Assyrian ideals of imperial expansion, national pride, and the indiscriminate use of power. YHWH's charge to Jonah to travel to Nineveh is rich with the symbolism of Assyria's origin and her reputation for unrestrained cruelty.

Nineveh's association with Assyrian cruelty made it an undesirable destination and an even more undesirable audience for Hebrew prophecy. The whole point of prophecy in Israel was to warn of impending judgment in order to encourage repentence and avert disaster (Amos 3:1 – 7;5:3 – 6). In the case of Assyria, however, few could believe that anything good would come from sparing such a ruthless enemy of Israel and Judah.

YHWH's description of Nineveh as a "great metropolis" (ha'îr haggedôlâ), repeated in 3:2, 3; and 4:11, anticipates this city's rise to prominence during the reign of Sennacherib. This phrase occurs in three other places in the Hebrew Bible outside of Jonah (Gen 10:12; Josh 10:2; Jer 22:8), each time with reference to a city that serves both as the capital of a district or nation and an important cultic center. The expression appears to have the same significance in the case of Jonah 1:2b. The designation is deliberately anachronistic, reflecting the perspective of the author and his audience (see introduction, pp. 34 – 36), but it also emphasizes YHWH's anticipation of the resurgence of Assyrian power and the plans he had for this city by which he would discipline his own people (Isa 10:5). This may, in fact, have been YHWH's underlying motivation for commissioning Jonah — to avert the premature end of a city that had a significant role to play on the world stage under YHWH's governance.

The description of Nineveh as "great" may also recall the spies' description of the Canaanite city-states that so intimidated them. In num 13:28 ten of the spies report to the people, "and the cities are well-fortified and very intimidating" (weh'arîm besurôt gedolot me'od). No doubt Jonah's contemporaries in both Israel and Judah felt at least as much trepidation regarding the chief Assyrian cities like Nineveh as they had the Canaanite cities they faced in the conquest.

Furthermore, the phrase "great metropolis" echoes Sennacherib's own description of Nineveh after he rebuilt it as his capital. In his annals he praises Nineveh with a string of honorific epitaphs:

At that time, Nineveh, the noble metropolis, the city bemercyd of Ishtar wherein are all the meeting places of gods and goddesses ... the eternal foundation, the plan of which has been drawn from of old in the firmament ... where the kings who went before had exercised lordship over Assyria and had received yearly, without interruption, never ending tribute from the princes of the four quarters.

Sennacherib's praise of Nineveh is self-congratulatory in tone as he accepts credit for the city's magnificence as the result of his renovations and his rededication of the metropolis to its patron deity, Ishtar. The author of the book of Jonah asserts, however, that before Sennacherib ever came to power or ever thought about making Nineveh his capital, YHWH had already designated the city as a "great metropolis." In other words, Nineveh's status as the chief city of Assyria and the center of a new world power is due neither to Sennacherib nor to Ishtar but to YHWH, who designated the city an instrument of his sovereign purposes.

The final imperative in the series is "condemn" (qara' 'al). The combination of the verb "to cry out" (qara') with the preposition "against" ('al) connotes disapproval and warning. This is the climactic command in YHWH's commission. The trip to Nineveh is merely prerequisite to the main task of publicly, unequivocally expressing YHWH's holy wrath against the ancient city.

The rationale for this task follows immediately ("because," kî). Nineveh's wickedness had reached a critical point and divine intervention was required. YHWH expressed this state of affairs through an interesting and rare idiom. He said, "their evil has ascended before me," ('aletâ ra'atam lepanay). The idiom suggests a reckless racking up of offenses until YHWH can no longer abide the wickedness. It emphasizes the blatant nature of Assyria's crimes, which they had shamelessly put on display. The grotesque nature of Assyria's cruelty in the eighth century is confirmed by the numerous inscriptions that the Assyrian kings left to commemorate their brutality. Perhaps it is to such proud, public displays of evil that YHWH is responding. Whatever the case, YHWH's justice can wait no longer. The purpose clause expresses the reason for immediate action and recalls the hint of urgency in the exclamatory "Up!" with which the commission began.

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Excerpted from Jonah by Kevin J. Youngblood. Copyright © 2013 Kevin Youngblood. Excerpted by permission of ZONDERVAN.
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