Chapter 6

Life of the Prophet Jonah

¹ Jonah is interpreted “of the Most High, suffering,” or “a dove.”[1] Jonah was of the land of Karathiareim, as some say, near the city of Azotus, by the sea. And having been cast forth from the sea-monster, and having gone to Nineveh, and preached, and returned, he did not remain in his own land; but, taking his mother, he sojourned in the land of Asshur, a country of foreign nations. For he said: Thus shall I take away my reproach, in that I lied, when I prophesied against Nineveh, the great city. And there was at that time Elijah the prophet, rebuking Ahab; and having called a famine upon the land, he fled. And coming to Sarephtha, he found the widow with her son, and abode with them; for he could not abide among the uncircumcised, and he blessed her on account of her hospitality; for he knew her beforehand from the first. And when her son died in the midst of the uncircumcised, God again raised the dead one there through Elijah; for he wished to show him that no one can run away from God. And Jonah, having risen up after the famine, came into Judea, and his mother died on the way, and they buried her beside the oak of Deborah; and he settled in the land of Saraam. And he died there, and was buried in the cave of Kenez, who became judge in the days of the anarchy. And he gave a great portent in Israel, and over the whole land. When, he says, they shall see a stone crying out piteously, and a beetle speaking from the wood to God, then the salvation draws near; then they shall see Jerusalem laid waste to its foundations, all of it; and to it all the nations shall come, worshiping the Lord; and they shall remove the stones toward the setting of the sun, and there shall be the worship of the Anointed One, because Jerusalem was made an abomination, in a desolation of wild beasts and of all uncleanness; and then shall come the end of all breath.