Chapter 5

Chapter Four

¹ And Jonah was grieved with a great grief, and was confounded, and prayed to the Lord, and said: O Lord, were not these my words, while I was yet in my own land? Therefore I made haste to flee to Tarshish, because I knew that you are merciful and compassionate, and long-suffering, and full of mercy, and one who repents of evils. The three days were fulfilled, after which the overthrow had been threatened to Nineveh; but when God brought no such thing upon those who had bitterly repented, and had chastised themselves by the most strenuous affliction, Jonah is grieved — not as envying those who were saved, nor as taking pleasure in the destruction of men (for these things are far from the good and gentle Spirit, whose lodging he was), but because he was in danger of being reckoned a liar, and for this very thing a vagabond, having troubled them in vain, and as speaking not from the mouth of the Lord but speaking from the belly. Hence he also pleads his cause with the lover of mankind, and says: Were not these the things I said, while I was yet in the land of Israel, that you are merciful? For I saw you showing great long-suffering toward Israel also, and by experience I came to know your tender mercies; and on this account I shrank from the prophetic dignity, because I knew that you repent over evils — that is, over afflictions — so as not to bring these upon those who for a while seemed to deserve them.

² Now therefore, Master and Lord, take my soul from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. Before, he says, when I was swallowed by the sea-monster, I prayed that my life might come up out of corruption. But now, on the contrary, I long to die; for this is better than that, while living, I should be reckoned a liar, and that the gift of prophecy should be blasphemed. Now perhaps to someone the prophet might seem faint-hearted, and not yielding to God the things of his own judgments. And perhaps it is no wonder; for he was a man, and that under the Old Covenant, where even those who seem perfect are still imperfect. But perhaps he is despondent not as faint-hearted; for it was not for his own glory, but for God’s, since the prophecy was of his grace, and, this failing, the God of Israel would have been blasphemed among the nations.

³ And the Lord said: Are you greatly grieved? The Lord recovers the grieved prophet by asking whether he is grieved; for in asking he seems to rebuke him, as one not rightly grieved. And this Symmachus rendered more clearly. For he said: Are you justly grieved? And: Are you rightly grieved? — that is, Consider with yourself whether you have just grounds for your grief. But here indeed he sets him up as a physician to himself, rousing him to reckon that he is unjustly grieved, and to cease from his despondency. But since the prophet did not understand, toward the end the Lord himself sets before him most plainly the cause why he ought not to be grieved, having arranged with good method and all wisdom the matter of the gourd.

⁴ And Jonah went out of the city, and sat over against the city, and made himself there a booth, and sat under it, until he should see what would become of the city. This, which happened first, the prophet, as some say, set down last; for, having related the repentance of the Ninevites, he wished to join to it the divine love for mankind, and the despondency that befell him because of it, and the words he spoke to God. Therefore he appears to speak later of things that happened earlier. For when Jonah had preached, he went out of the town, and, having pitched a booth, awaited the outcome of the prediction. And this plainly happened before the despondency. For after the end of the appointed days, having seen the city undergo nothing of the things threatened, he is despondent, and makes that prayer with pain, pleading his cause with God. But some say not so, but that this, his sitting over against the city, came about after the despondency, even as it is ordered according to the Scripture; for, having seen that Nineveh was not overthrown, the prophet was despondent, and said what he said to God; then, going out of the city, he sat before it, no longer expecting an overthrow, but awaiting some other, milder punishment, as we said above; for he did not believe that in three days they had been able to wipe out the records of so many transgressions.

⁵ And the Lord God commanded a gourd, and it came up over the head of Jonah, to be a shade above his head, to shade him from his evils. And Jonah rejoiced over the gourd with a great joy.[1] God contrives a comfort for the prophet, and commands a gourd, as he had the sea-monster — that is, he wills that a gourd spring up, and at once it comes to be, all at once sprouting, and spreading out, and displaying a thick foliage of broad leaves, so as to shade the head of Jonah from his evils — that is, from the afflictions of the sun’s burning. And that the prophet, who had been grieved at the salvation of the Ninevites, should rejoice at the springing up of the herb, shows the character of the man to be simple, and near to the guilelessness of infants. For these too are easily carried, by any chance cause whatever, both to rejoicing and to grieving.

⁶ And God commanded an early worm at dawn the next day, and it smote the gourd, and it withered; and it came to pass, when the sun rose, that God also commanded a burning scorching wind, and the sun smote upon the head of Jonah, and he fainted, and renounced his life, and said: It is better for me to die than to live. By “an early worm” he names the caterpillar, because it has the beginnings of its coming-to-be from the dew that falls toward dawn. And this too is commanded, as was said — the will of God being named a command — to eat the root of the gourd. And so it came to pass, and the herb withered. And God commands, and there comes a burning wind (for not only was the sun fiery, but a burning wind came on besides, increasing the blaze), and the head of Jonah is smitten both by the sun and by that scorching wind; and he, falling into despondency, renounces his life. And these things are arranged with all wisdom, that we may learn the weakness of man, and may not busy ourselves about the reasons of the things done by God at any time.

⁷ And the Lord said to Jonah: Are you greatly grieved over the gourd? And he said: I am greatly grieved, even to death. And the Lord said: You spared the gourd, for which you did not toil, neither did you rear it, which came into being under a night, and under a night perished; and shall not I spare Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than twelve myriads of men, who do not know their right hand or their left, and much cattle? The Lord, who cares for sinners and provides for the righteous, asks the grieved prophet whether he is greatly grieved — not as ignorant, but as about to teach him that he ought not to be grieved. For when he had confessed that he was so grieved as even to desire death, “Well,” says God, “I take you for my judge. Consider, then, whether it is just that you should grieve over the gourd, of which you were not the husbandman — for you neither planted nor watered it, but, having come into being toward dawn, again on the morrow toward dawn it became the prey of a worm — while you wished me to deal unsparingly with so great a city, which had its being from me? Wonder, then, at my love for mankind, as having good reason, and do not be despondent, as though the prophecy were failing.” As for the phrase who do not know their right hand or their left, some supposed it was said of the simplicity of the Ninevite men; but it seems rather to be said of the infants in the city, from which the multitude of the city may be reckoned. For if the infants alone were more than twelve myriads, how great was the remaining multitude! And the aim of the things spoken by God leads us to this thought. For if it was not right, he says, to receive the repentance of sinners, yet at least one ought to take pity on so many myriads of infants, which, by reason of the youth of their age, do not know which is the right hand and which the left, and for this reason, not being liable to sin, ought by no means to pay penalties or to be destroyed. Likewise also one ought to spare the cattle; for neither did they owe a penalty for sins. If, then, the righteous man pities the lives of cattle, how much more shall the Maker of these spare his own possession? As, then, he added “the cattle” also, that he might show the city to have been justly saved, so he added the tender age also, since the penalties for sins are justly exacted neither of these nor of those.

⁸ This, then, is the end of the prophecy; but let us hymn our good Master, who, not willing the death of the sinner, but rather that he should turn and live, even bears at times with grieving the holy men who are well-pleasing to him, and, when they are unwilling, holds out the mercy. So, when the great Elijah had held back the rain, he himself comes as an ambassador to his servant, and says: Go, he says, to Ahab, and I will give rain upon the face of the earth. But as Nineveh, with its cattle, was saved, so also Christ, having given himself a ransom, saved all, wise and unwise, rich and poor; to whom we believe it is said by David: Men and cattle you will save, O Lord; how have you multiplied your mercy, O God! And the sons of men shall hope in the shelter of your wings. And the other things of this prophecy are worthy of wonder; but not least is the character of the prophet, which shines forth in it, being so candid and truthful that he speaks all things without concealment, and lays bare his own faults — his disobedience, his flight, his faint-heartedness — and is not ashamed of these, but sets them up as a monument for our profit. Such were all the saints, not seeking their own things, but the things of the many, that they might be saved. So David too set up a monument of his own sin, that he might procure profit for those born after, and inscribed the fiftieth psalm, full of all compunction, and laying down good hopes for those in despair, that there is no sin so great and so manifold but that it is wiped out by tears. For in this very psalm, in which he laments his sin, he prophesies of great and heavenly mysteries, of the Zion above and of the altar there, and of more hidden sacrifices worthy of it — showing out of his abundance that repentance procures not only the forgiveness of sins, but also the increase of gifts.

⁹ And it is not to be unknown that some did not at all accept that the disobedience of Jonah, and his flight, and the rest, came to pass according to the history. But since, they say, he saw the falling-away of Israel, and perceived the prophetic grace passing over to the nations, for this reason he withdraws from the proclamation, and puts off the command; and, leaving the “look-out of joy” (for this is what “Joppa” can mean among the Hebrews), I mean his ancient height and dignity, he cast himself into the sea of grief, and is storm-tossed in his thoughts, and is shipwrecked — that is, he is tossed by the waves, pondering how the Spirit refuses the firstborn son, the royal priesthood, the chosen people, and goes over to the unclean dogs, the nations. Then Jonah falls asleep — that is, he is utterly at a loss, and swallows up his own senses, no longer able to understand how this comes to be. For Paul too, perplexed at this very thing, cries out: O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! But the look-out wakes him — the all-foreseeing Word, who foretold to him that his own kinsmen would be God-slayers, and that justly the grace would depart from them. And so he falls under the lot — the allotment from above, I mean, and the righteous judgment of God, by which he does not see fit to bestow the pure and holy Spirit upon the unclean crucifiers of God. Then too he is swallowed by the sea-monster, yet not consumed; for he ponders the falling-away of unbelieving Israel, but ponders besides the salvation of the remnant according to election; for God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. And the wonder is shared out three days with Christ; for he believes that, through the washing of regeneration, those baptized into the three-days’ resurrection shall live again, in no way harmed by the sea-monster of the second unbelief. Then the sea-monster more clearly foresees the nations coming, and repenting, and receiving forgiveness of sins from God; and he is grieved, not that these are saved, but that his own tribesmen and kinsmen are cast away.[2] And do not wonder, since to Paul too there was grief and ceaseless pain in his heart — the falling-away of Israel. And Jonah, hinting also at those who in the times of the apostles still clung to the Law, such as Peter was before he saw the sheet, thinking it unlawful for a Jewish man to join himself to gentiles, goes out of the city — the Church of the nations, I mean — judging these not to be admitted to the faith unless they should also Judaize, and sits under the booth, cherishing the transitory covenant, and saying that they must be circumcised and keep the customs of Moses, and rests under the shade of the gourd, which we learn to be the Law, born under a night — when, that is, night held the rule of sin (for the Law was added for the sake of transgressions) — and perishing under a night; for it was abolished, when it could not get outside the said night. For besides that no one is justified by the works of the Law, transgression even abounded the more through it; for apart from law, sin is dead. And how was it destroyed? Through the working of the early worm, of the great power of God, of the grace of the luminous and light-giving Jesus, who shone upon us, and made the dawn both of the knowledge of God and of the upright life, who says: But I am a worm, and not a man; for this it is that brought down and abolished the Law. And then indeed Jonah learns the mystery more perfectly, that the nations are justly received and saved. Or is it not so that in the Acts the others, and Peter himself, at first dispute with the gentiles? Then Peter learns through the sheet the cleanness of the nations, and teaches the others that the Law too is called a “yoke,” which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. All these things Jonah hints at, and so arranged his prophecy.

¹⁰ But indeed let us be profited by it in other respects as well, and especially by learning that bitter is the recompense for disobeying the commands of God. For because of offending God, we are given over to the seas of temptations, and wrestle with surges. And the all-devouring sea-monster seems — he who takes us as we are given over to temptations — to swallow us up and destroy us, by leading us perhaps even to blaspheme and to murmur against Providence; but let us preserve ourselves unharmed. And this will be, if we pray to him who is able to bring our life up out of corruption, and promise him spiritual sacrifices, to do the deeds that tend to our salvation. For so disposed, we shall not keep vanities and lies, which is the lot of those who forsake the divine mercy and go off into blasphemies. For these are in truth vain, neither letting go their afflictions because of their blaspheming, but still provoking God, and calling down upon themselves heavier scourges, when they ought to call upon the mercy of God. Or is it not so that even worldly servants, when, chastised by their masters, they blaspheme, the more inflame their master’s anger; whereas those who say, Have mercy, soften it, and escape being further punished? So minded, then, and looking to the one who suffered for us and rose on the third day, we too shall rise on the third day, having these three things — faith, hope, love — to enlighten us in the night of afflictions; saying, Faithful is God, who will not allow us to be tempted, and therefore enduring, and receiving the proof out of the endurance, and out of this the hope. And hope does not at all put to shame. And so, coming to the love of the Father of mercies, in the thought that What son is there whom the father does not chasten? and, Whom he loves he chastens; so that we too ought to love him, with him who says: Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus?

¹¹ If we set these things aright, we shall also become heralds to others who sin, and shall save them through our own example. So too we shall come to be outside the city — that is, outside this world — as Paul exhorts, bidding us go forth bearing the reproach of Christ, that is, every dishonor and every affliction; so too we shall rest in a booth, reckoning our sojourn here not as abiding, but as passing, like Abraham and the rest of the patriarchs, the joint-heirs of the promise, who dwelt in tents, as awaiting the city that has the foundations. And the shade of the gourd — the glory of this world (for all the glory of man is as the flower of grass) — seems to refresh us in the burning heat of afflictions, and for this reason is desired by us. But let the early worm smite it — our conscience, to which nothing of ours is dark and hidden. Therefore it is also a worm, ever giving us a perception of our sins. For a sensible heart is a moth to the bones. This, setting our evils before our eyes, and teaching that we are worthy even of heavier afflictions for our sins, will smite the desire of glory, and will persuade us to say with the prophet: I will bear the anger of the Lord, because I have sinned against him; and again, “for a few of the things wherein I sinned, I have been scourged.” Thanks, then, to the Spirit, who profits us through all things, and both reveals mysteries through the stripping away of the letter, and not least, through the letter, sets right the souls of those who give heed. To take but one example, then, that from one thing we may set forth the whole: the phrase, Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown, signifies, more mystically, the overthrow, through the Lord’s three-days’ burial, of the wicked adverse kingdom that of old held sway and lorded it, as Nineveh among the nations — against which the Law indeed warred, but was weak; therefore it is said, Yet three days, and this complete overthrow, namely that he will strip off the principalities and the powers, having triumphed over them in the cross — he who through death was about to bring to nought him that had the power of death. And while Jesus was making his sojourn on earth, the rule of the demons was in this way being dissolved; and he despoiled the strong man, plundering his goods, and healing the demon-possessed; yet the complete overthrow of the demonic tyranny was accomplished through the three-days’ resurrection. And through the threefold immersion in baptism also — the truly daylit and illuminating immersion — sin is overthrown. These things, then, are signified mystically through the words, Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Yet neither is the letter useless to us, who learn not to despair, but to take courage in the love of the Lord for mankind, who, for a three days’ repentance, overlooked the wickedness of many years.

¹² To him be the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.