Old Testament · Minor Prophets
יוֹנָה
The prophet who ran, a storm, a fish, a repentant city, and a God too merciful for his taste.
The prophet who succeeds and is furious about it. Jonah is unique among the prophetic books in being almost entirely narrative, and in making the prophet the problem. He runs from a commission to Nineveh, the capital of the empire that will destroy his nation, and when the city actually repents he sulks and tells God this is exactly why he ran: because you are gracious and merciful and relent from sending calamity. The book ends on a question God asks him about whether he should not pity a city of a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and Jonah never answers. Whether it is read as history or as a prophetic parable, the sting is the same, and it is aimed at the reader.
If you remember one thing
The book ends with a question and no answer, aimed at the reader as much as the prophet. Jonah is angry precisely because he was right about God being merciful.
“For I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.”
Jonah 4:2
Jonah 1:17
The great fish. Whether the book is read as history or as prophetic parable is a genuine and long-standing division among readers who hold Scripture equally highly, and the book's argument works either way.
Jonah 4:11
God's closing question about a city of a hundred and twenty thousand, which Jonah never answers. The silence is aimed at the reader.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
The reluctant prophet who ran from his commission and was swallowed by a great fish, only to be spat out and sent again. When wicked Nineveh actually repented, Jonah sulked, a book less about the fish than about God's mercy reaching even Israel's enemies.
The whole book, with the people and places explained as you read. Available in WEB and KJV. Chapters marked ✦ carry a verse the New Testament takes up.
Games built on this book’s people and story.
