Books of the Bible

The Book of Jonah

Old Testament · Minor Prophets · Genre: Narrative · Author: Not stated; concerns the prophet Jonah · Chapters: 4

Jonah is the surprising story of a prophet who ran from God rather than preach to his enemies. Swallowed by a great fish and given a second chance, Jonah reluctantly obeys, only to be angered when God shows mercy to the very people he despised.

Start reading: Jonah chapter 1

A key verse

But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.Jonah 2:9 (KJV)

The setting and background of Jonah

Jonah is unusual among the twelve Minor Prophets, for it is almost entirely a story about a prophet rather than a collection of his oracles. Set in the eighth century before Christ, it concerns Jonah's reluctant mission to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Israel's most feared enemy, and God's surprising mercy toward that great and cruel city.

The book unfolds as a tightly told drama in four scenes: Jonah's flight and the storm, his prayer from the belly of the great fish, the repentance of Nineveh, and God's gentle confrontation of the angry prophet. Its unfinished ending, a question hanging in the air, turns the mirror on the reader's own heart.

Jonah was written to expose the reluctance of God's people to see his mercy shown to outsiders, and to reveal a God whose compassion reaches even to enemies. In the sweep of Scripture, Jesus points to Jonah's three days in the fish as a sign of his own death and resurrection, and the mercy shown to Nineveh foreshadows the gospel going out to all nations.

The story and structure of Jonah

Jonah is unlike the other prophetic books, for it is almost entirely a story about a prophet rather than a collection of his oracles. Jonah is told to go and preach against Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Israel's most feared and brutal enemy. Instead of obeying, he flees in the opposite direction, boarding a ship bound for the far end of the known world.

God sends a great storm that threatens to sink the ship, and Jonah, admitting that he is the cause, is thrown into the sea, where a great fish swallows him. From the belly of the fish Jonah prays a psalm of distress and thanksgiving, confessing that salvation belongs to the Lord, and after three days he is delivered onto dry land, given a second chance.

Jonah goes to Nineveh at last and preaches a short message of coming judgment. To his dismay the whole city, from the king to the least, repents in sackcloth and turns from its evil, and God relents and spares them. The reluctant prophet's mission is a stunning success, and it makes him furious.

Jonah is angry precisely because he knew all along that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, even toward enemies, and he did not want that mercy shown to Nineveh. He would rather die than see his enemies spared, and he sulks outside the city, hoping still to see it destroyed.

The book ends not with the prophet's triumph but with God's gentle question. God appoints a plant to shade Jonah and then a worm to destroy it, and when Jonah grieves over the plant, God asks whether he himself should not have compassion on a great city full of people who do not know their right hand from their left. The story leaves the reader searching their own heart for narrow mercy.

The great themes of Jonah

Key passages in Jonah

Jonah in the sweep of Scripture

Jonah holds a unique place among the twelve prophets as a story that turns the mirror on God's own people, exposing their reluctance to see mercy shown to outsiders. It anticipates the great biblical theme of God's salvation reaching beyond Israel to all nations. Jesus himself points to Jonah, both as a sign of his own death and resurrection and as a rebuke to those who would not repent, for the men of Nineveh repented at Jonah's preaching, and one greater than Jonah had come.

Where Christ is in Jonah

Jonah's three days in the belly of the fish are named by Jesus as a sign of his own three days in the tomb and his resurrection. And God's mercy to the outsiders of Nineveh foreshadows the gospel going out to all nations through Christ, in whom the compassion Jonah resented is poured out on the whole world, so that no enemy and no stranger is beyond the reach of God's grace.

How to read Jonah well

Read Jonah as a mirror, asking honestly where you resist God's mercy toward others, especially toward those you would rather see judged. Marvel at a grace wide enough to reach even a cruel enemy, and let the book's unfinished ending, God's question hanging in the air, press you to answer it in your own heart. Remember that you too have been given second chances, and let the God of compassion enlarge your own narrow mercy.

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