Chapter 2

Chapter One

¹ And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amathi. Why did he begin in this way? For the phrase And it came to pass carries a certain emphasis. It seems, then, that since there was much talk about Nineveh, and a report prevailing over all that, weighed down by its wealth and power, it was full of sin, it was fitting to say, And the word of the Lord came. Or else, since the Israelites were disobedient, he plainly began in this way, as if he were saying: The Israelites were in a bad and disobedient state. And so thereafter the word of the Lord came to Jonah, that he should be sent to the nation of the Ninevites. The name of the prophet’s father is added on account of the likeness of names. For it is likely that others too were so called, but surely they would not also be of the same father.

² Saying: Arise and go to Nineveh the great city. A very great proof of the future reception of the nations is the sending of Jonah to Nineveh; for this was the chief city of the Assyrians, as was said in the prologue. For Asshur built, it says, Nineveh; and the Assyrians were altogether gentiles. This city God wished to save, as a place that was then given over to idolatry and to every sorcery and trickery; and indeed for this reason, having sent the prophet to them as a herald of repentance, he showed what we said above: that God is not of the Jews only, but also of the nations, and that there is no respect of persons with him, but in every nation he that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him — even as Peter also, in the case of Cornelius, declared this when he had grasped it truly and by the facts themselves. And the words Arise and go are words of urging. For he who does not desire the death of the sinner, but rather that he should turn and live, hastens the prophet on to the proclamation of repentance. Therefore he adds, the great, that he might the more shame him into hastening his journey. For it is not, he says, some paltry little place, but a city — not one of the many, but a great one; so that one must by no means despise it. For if not even the lowly are to be despised, much less the great.

³ And proclaim in it, that the cry of its wickedness has come up to me. Since, he says, they have no perception of their own transgressions and impieties, do you become a herald to them, and teach them that they have so displayed such great wickedness that its magnitude has reached up to heaven, and all but sends forth a voice, crying out against those who pursue it. For he who knows all things before their coming-to-be is ignorant of nothing that exists, however small it be; yet, since he is a lover of mankind, he does not bring punishment for small matters, but when the evils have become great and considerable, and such as to move his kindness to anger, then he rises up to take vengeance. For this reason he says that a cry of the wickedness came up to him, as having been multiplied and as summoning him to cut it off. So too the blood of Abel is said to cry out against the murder committed by Cain; so too the foul deed of the Sodomites cried out against them. For in truth the Ninevites, living in wealth, pursued every lawlessness; among their other licentious doings, they busied themselves with sorceries and magic arts — that practice especially prized among the Chaldeans — even as Nahum also says: A fair harlot and full of charm, a mistress of sorceries. Therefore the Lord sent the prophet to this city, though it was settled very far from Judea; that he might show to all men that even those most of all entangled in the snares of error, and the ringleaders of every lawlessness, even these would receive the knowledge of God and would take virtue to their bosom. For the word of God is not feeble, but mighty and effectual, as was said also to Jeremiah: Behold, I have given my words in your mouth as fire, and this people as wood; and again, Are not my words like fire that burns, says the Lord, and like an axe that cuts the rock? And note also the term “cry,” set down here just as in the case of the Sodomites.

⁴ And Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Here many are perplexed: why ever does a prophet flee, as though he would escape God’s notice? For not even any of the more ordinary men would say this — that he would run away from God, who fills all things and is contained nowhere. Or had he not heard David, even if he himself did not know it: Where shall I go from your spirit, and from your presence where shall I flee? and what follows. It seems, then, either that what is said is absurd, or that he himself is some absurd and strange man. Now it is possible to say that he knew plainly, more than the others, as a prophet, that the Lord of all is present everywhere, and that no place is bereft of his providence; yet he supposed that God made his more manifest appearances in Judea only, and that, if he should get far away from it, God would no longer appear to him so as to send him on this ministry. For this is what from the presence of the Lord signifies — that is, he was fleeing the more manifest appearance of God, and the sending forth from him. That the saints of old thought God appeared in certain set-apart places, Jacob too bears witness, when he saw the ladder and the angels ascending, saying: The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And David: The Lord chose Zion, he preferred it for a habitation for himself. And even now we ourselves, who are taught to think more perfectly, all the more resort to whatever place we believe the divine grace overshadows, expecting to be sanctified and to reap some divine gift. He declines the ministry, not as disobedient or slothful (for both are unworthy of a prophet), but partly as knowing that the Ninevites would obtain the divine love for mankind, if they should make use of repentance, and that hence it would come about that the prophecy be reckoned false — a thing altogether unseemly and unworthy. And perhaps too the Ninevites might treat him ill, as one who had falsely cast them into the hardships of repentance. This suspicion was put into him by the matter of the Ninevites suffering none of the dreadful things, and this was the underlying purpose of the proclamation. For he reasoned that God would not have proclaimed beforehand, if he had wished to destroy; but plainly the threat of punishment is a turning toward repentance. Besides this, he supposed that the good obedience of the Ninevites would become an accusation of the Jews — since the one party had believed an unknown and foreign man, while the others disobeyed their own kinsmen the prophets, who made their prophecies with wonder-workings. For these reasons he did not at once do what was commanded, but set himself to flee to Tarshish. As for this region, some say it is Tarsus, which is the metropolis of Cilicia, and lies at the foot of Mount Taurus; others say that a region of India is so called, Tarshish — for it was from Tarshish, they say, that Solomon imported costly stones and elephants’ tusks together with apes; and these come from nowhere else than from India, over a two years’ voyage, and over so long a passage Solomon’s ship is said in the Book of Kingdoms to put in. But those who say this are mistaken. For if he were fleeing to India, he ought not to have gone down to Joppa. For this is a seaboard town of Palestine, and lies upon the sea that inclines toward the west. Through this open sea one would by no means, in using navigation, come to India; for between our sea and the Indian sea there is much mainland, both inhabited and uninhabited, and many great mountains, and the Red Sea gulf, to which the Indian sea then joins. But the divine Scripture also testifies that Tarshish is not of India, nor is it Tarsus, but it belongs to Africa; for in Isaiah the Seventy rendered Wail, O ships of Carthage, for your stronghold has perished, while Aquila and Symmachus put “Tarshish” instead of “Carthage”; and when Ezekiel makes mention of Carthage, both in the Hebrew and in the Syriac, “Tarshish” is found. From which it is plain that Jonah was not fleeing to India, but was fleeing to Carthage.

⁵ And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish, and paid its fare, and went up into it, to sail with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He makes his flight by sea, supposing that he would most quickly be rid of the ministry of prophesying to the Ninevites. He even paid the fare of the voyage, when not even the loss thereof could hold him back. For all things seemed light to him — the loss of his homeland, the danger of the sea, the paying out of his fare — if only it might seem to him that he had thrown off this burdensome service.

⁶ And the Lord raised up a great wind upon the sea, and there was a great surge upon the sea, and the ship was in danger of being broken up. And the sailors were afraid, and cried out each to his own god, and made a casting-out of the gear that was in the ship into the sea, to be lightened of it. Jonah, then, thought thus to flee the divine service; but the Lord of land and sea raises up a surge against the fugitive, and casts about the ship bonds of the waves, that we may learn not to flee the divine ministry, nor, when called to a work pleasing to God, to put it off and to draw back. And we are taught from this that nothing is unforeseen, but that even the surges come from his counsel, and do not happen by chance or by nature. For the Lord, it says, raised up a great wind. Unless one were to say that, for the most part, the surges come about naturally, by the conjunctions and recedings of the stars — God having altogether implanted this order in the nature of the world; yet they come about often, even such as nature does not require, when God wills it, who both made nature and is able to alter it at any time toward what is willed by him. And in both ways those are saved or destroyed whom he has judged worthy to be saved or to perish. The sailors’ being afraid is a sign of the greatness of the danger, when even those most experienced in the sea were in dread, plainly as men in despair, and were casting out the gear, so that the ship might of course be lightened. And each one besought his own gods as well, the Scripture relating these things not in vain, but that it might teach that both are needful — both to do our own part, and to call upon the divine alliance — and never to commit the whole to God while we ourselves sit idle (for that belongs to lifeless and motionless things), nor again to trust altogether to our own devices and contrivings; for this again belongs to the godless and the desperate. And some say that the surge arose about this ship alone. For they would not, if the surge had been common to all, have undertaken to learn by lot the cause of the surge. But since they saw the others sailing without danger and borne along by fair winds, while their own vessel was in danger of sinking, they sought who among them was the cause of the surge. And the argument seems to have probability, if indeed other ships sailing in company were borne along unharmed.

⁷ But Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and was sleeping, and snoring. The prophet was not so careless, or so given over to sloth, as to be sleeping himself while so great a danger hung over them — and that not simply, but so deeply as even to snore, which is a mark of the greatest unconcern; rather, the sleep was before the danger and the storm, and this too perhaps from the despondency that came of his fleeing. And his going down into the hold of the ship — that is, into the lowest space — is worthy of the prophetic character; for what is solitary and retired is prophetic. So David too: I am alone, he says; and Jeremiah: It is good for a man when he takes up the yoke from his youth; he shall sit alone; and again, I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry; I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness.

⁸ And the look-out came to him and said to him: Why are you snoring? Arise, call upon your God, that God may save us, and that we perish not. The crowd of sailors is at other times heedless of what is needful and senseless; but here they are so brought to their senses by fear that the look-out not only prays himself, but even comes to Jonah and rouses him too to prayers; so does necessity teach what is needful. And observe how, even though they called upon various gods, they nevertheless had a notion that the one God is greater than all. For he did not say, “that the gods may save us,” but, that God — because they reckoned him one; and while Jonah was praying with them all to his own God, they supposed that some one of the many called upon for help might hearken and be able to save them — this one being perhaps Poseidon, or Nereus, or Thetis, or some other such sea-spirit, according to the Hellenic error.

⁹ And each said to his neighbor: Come, let us cast lots. And the lot fell upon Jonah. Jonah, indeed, would have hearkened to the look-out and have prayed. For even if the Scripture did not say this, yet it is to be understood; just as, though it did not say that he even rose from sleep, no one nevertheless doubts that he rose. But when he had prayed, he was not heard; for it was not likely that the disobedient one should be heard. Rather, the flight took away his boldness toward God. Since, then, the help from their prayers was refused in common, they have recourse to the lot, which is customary among the gentiles. For they knew by nature that there is a penalty laid upon sinners, and that we pay due penalties for the things in which we sin, and that the things here are not unprovided for. Therefore they also believed that Providence, through the lot, would make known to them the cause. For they did not suppose this — that the lot would by chance show them the sinner. Yet let not the hearer, because the lot succeeded among them, now receive the practice of the lot as permitted. But let him consider that God draws each one by the things that are his own, and familiar, and known to him; as he drew the Magi by a star, and the men of Azotus in the Old Covenant by the sign of the oxen that conveyed the ark, since that token showed beforehand the things that would be concerning it. So too, having found fishermen, he said, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men, holding out to them the name familiar to them. So here too, then, since casting lots was customary to the sailors as gentiles, God, condescending to them through the token known to them, made known the cause of the danger. And that the lot is not spiritual the apostles show, who, when the Spirit was not yet present with them, then used the lot; but after the descent of the Spirit, they nowhere again admitted the lot. And yet some maintain that the apostles did not use even such a lot, but by certain more divine signs were shown the one chosen by God.

¹⁰ And they said to him: Tell us, we pray, for what cause this evil is upon us; what is your occupation, and whence do you come, and where are you going, and from what country, and of what people are you? See how reasonable these barbarian men are. For not at once, upon recognizing Jonah as the cause of the storm, do they grow savage against him, but they ask gently and mildly: For what cause is this evil? — that is, From what sin committed by you has this affliction come upon us? And they ask in order that, having learned, they may try to set the sin right, as far as is possible. And they inquire also what occupation he follows — that is, what manner of livelihood he has, and of what nation he is, and his road, whence and whither he is going; so that from his occupation, and from the common practices of his nation, and from the road he travels, they may infer his manner of life, and so propitiate the God against whom he had offended. For they thought that, by appeasing the spirit grieved on his account — perhaps some sea-spirit — they would escape the harm that came from the storm. Let us then imitate the moderate and reasonable character of these men, who were the better when the better things were required of them.

¹¹ And he said to them: I am a servant of the Lord, and I worship the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. This, he says, is my occupation, and this is my work — to serve the true God by my deeds, even if now I have disobeyed him, and to worship him through faith in him. For many indeed worship the true God, but are not his servants, in that they do not do the works pleasing to him. And perhaps by this too he showed of what country he is — namely, of Judea. For no other nation worshiped this God. And the prophet is worthy of wonder, in that even when near to death he proclaims the power of God, and to the sailors, who were worshipers of created things and idolaters, reveals his majesty, calling him the Maker of all, both of heaven and of the things below. Yet by saying who made the sea he gives them to reason that, since he worships the Maker of the sea, plainly, having offended him, he it was who raised up this surge.

¹² And the men feared a great fear, and said to him: Why have you done this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. From this, he says, they knew that he was fleeing because he had offended God — from his telling them that he is a servant of the Lord. For since he had said that he worships the true God, they understood that he is a Jew. And it was not lawful for Jews to mingle with foreigners, or to consort with idolatrous cities; so that it was plain that he had offended his own God. And perhaps they supposed that he was also forsaking the life under the Law, and, giving himself over to the customs of the Greeks, was fleeing from the presence of the God of the Jews. Therefore they were afraid, lest, this God being mighty and inescapable, they too should perish together with his runaway. And that to mingle with Greeks seemed to Jews to be outside the Law is plain both from the Old Covenant and from the Gospel. For when the Lord said to the Jews, Where I go, you cannot come, they said foolishly, Where is this man about to go, that we shall not find him? Is he about to go to the dispersion of the Greeks, and to teach the Greeks?

¹³ And they said to him: What shall we do that the sea may cease from us? And here too the character of these sailor-men is worthy of wonder, being so gentle and mild. For they did not set upon him, nor say, “O foul and utterly foul wretch, because of you we shall perish”; but they make him the judge of what is to be done about himself. Whether, then, they were so reasonable even before, they are to be emulated; or whether by fear they were remolded toward greater gentleness, even so they are to be imitated; whereas often we ourselves, falling into misfortunes, grow savage, not only against the authors of our troubles, but already even against our nearest, and against those who comfort us in our misfortunes. Not such were those men; rather they divide their judgments, and neither dare to pronounce death against him — especially having heard that he is a servant of the God of the Jews (and that God had been reported fearful to them) — nor again are they able to despise the danger. Therefore, as a servant of God, they beseech him to say what must be done about him; for plainly, they thought, he was not ignorant of the remedy for the evil either.

¹⁴ Because the sea was going and raising up a surge the more. After the lot, he says, the surge became more violent. For the sea was going — that is, was moved and swollen more. But some copies have was roaring, in the sense that it sounded fearfully, as the waves dashed against one another and against the ship. And these things became more violent after the lot, God plainly showing on whose account the affliction was.

¹⁵ And Jonah said to them: Take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea will cease from you. For I know that for my sake this great surge is upon you. Such a thing is a thankful soul. For when the prophet recognized his own sin, he was ashamed of the things in which he had offended by disobeying God; but knowing that the sea would make peace, serving the divine command, if it should take the one who had disobeyed God, he pronounces death against himself. But we are by no means such; rather, even when we plainly know that our sins often deserve punishment, whenever we undergo some long affliction, we murmur against Providence as though we were sinless — so far are we from pronouncing upon ourselves the worthy penalty.

¹⁶ And the men strove to return to the land, and could not, because the sea was going and rising up the more against them; and they cried to the Lord, and said: By no means, Lord, let us perish for the sake of this man’s life, and lay not upon us righteous blood; for you, Lord, have done as you would. Most loving of mankind and of good character, as we said, were these men. For though Jonah had given himself up to death, these still strove toward the land, plying their oars to make for shore; but their toil was in vain. For the sea was raised the more, and not even so do they do anything against the prophet, though they had justice on their side, since he had condemned himself. But they judge it murderous so much as to render such service to his will. Therefore they pray first of all to be delivered from the surge, and not to perish for sparing the prophet’s life, but that both he and they be permitted to live. But if it is necessary, they say, that this man die, by no means lay upon us righteous blood — that is, his blood; do not make it come to our condemnation, for it was righteous, as that of your servant. For not as murderers do we put this man to death, but in service to your will; for you, as you would, have done these things. And see the barbarians, how they do not dispute: How do these things come about? Is this God then a man-slayer? Is he a lover of blood? Rather they cherish the will of God, and worship it, not busying themselves about the causes of what happens.

¹⁷ And they took Jonah, and cast him into the sea, and the sea stood still from its surging; and the men feared the Lord with a great fear, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows. Hardly at last do they bring themselves to the deed, and at once the sea grows calm; and they recognize the Lord more perfectly than before, and fear him not a little, as being plainly inescapable, and as knowing well how to come upon those who sin against him. And the things that tend to divine honor they did. For they offered, it says, sacrifices — perhaps having gone ashore as well, for the sea allowed it. And they made vows — that is, they promised to do certain things, perhaps, if they should reach their homeland. Thus they were made better. And those who before reckoned many gods, each in the time of the surge, now recognizing the one who rules the dominion of the sea and calms the tossing of its waves, both sacrifice to him and make their vows. Do you see the divine dispensations? Jonah fled, that the Ninevites might not be saved, and behold, the sailors are saved, and then he too, and the good becomes the greater. Thus Providence turns even our sins to good account.