JONAH (jo'nah), (Heb. yo-naw', a dove; Sept. 'howls, ee-o-nas'), the fifth in order of the minor prophets.
No era is assigned to him in the book of his prophecy, yet there is little doubt of his being the same person who is spoken of in 2 Kings xiv :25. His birthplace was Gath-hepher, in the tribe of Zebulun. Jonah flourished in or before the reign of Jeroboam 11, and predicted the successful con quests, enlarged territory, and brief prosperity pf the Israelitish kingdom under that monarch's sway. The oracle itself is not extant, though Hitzig has, by a novel process of criticism, amused himself with a fancied discovery of it in chaps. xv and xvi of Isaiah. (Hitzig, Des Proph. Jon. Orakel. neber Moab Keitisch-vindicrit, etc., Heidelberg, 1831.) (1) Ordered to Nineveh. God ordered this prophet to go to Nineveh, and warn the 'inhabit ants of their approaching destruction. Fearing that the merciful Lord might forbear punishing them if they repented, and so seemingly tarnish his honor, Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord and embarked at Joppa for Tarshish (whether in Cilicia, Africa, or Spain, is uncer tain), that, being out of the Promised Land, the spirit of prophecy might forbear to excite him.
(2) Cast Overboard. A storm quickly pur sued the ship wherein he was. The heathen mariners awaked him, and required him to call on his God for deliverance. Lots being cast, to discern for whose sake the storm rose, the lot fell on Jonah. With shame he confessed his guilt to the mariners. He desired them to cast him into the sea, that the storm might be stayed. With reluctance they were at last obliged to do it, whereon the storm immediately ceased. A large fish swallowed up Jonah, and retained him safe in her belly for three days.
(3) Ejected by the Whale. There he earnest ly prayed to the Lord, at whose command the fish vomited him alive on the dry land ; but whether on the east end of the Syrian sea near Scande roon we know not, though that is most probable.
His orders to warn the Ninevites of their ap proaching destruction were immediately renewed.
(4) Warns the Ninevites. All obedient, he hasted to that vast city. He had not traveled in it above a day's journey, denouncing their ruin, when the king, whom we cannot suppose Pul, but one about fifty or sixty years earlier, and all his people, applied themselves to solemn fasting and prayer. Hereupon God forbore to execute his vengeance upon them, which had been but condi tionally threatened. Displeased with the divine mercy, Jonah angrily wished to die, rather than live and see his prediction unfulfilled.
(5) The Gourd. While he sat without the city, waiting for his desired view of Nineveh's ruin, God caused a gourd to spring up quickly, to over shadow him from the scorching heat of the sun; but ncxt day, a worm having bitten its root, it suddenly withered. The scorching sun and blast ing wind vehemently beating on Jonah, he fainted, and angrily wished to die, and averred to God himself that he was right in so doing. Thc Lord bid him think, if he had pity on the shortlived gourd, was there not far more reason for him and their Maker to pity the penitent inhabitants of Nineveh, where were above 12o,000 infants, and much cattle (Jonah i-iv).
FiguratiVe. Did not the fate of this prophet typify our. Savior, who was fu be cast into the raging sea of wrath ; his lying a part of three days in the grave; his glorious resurrection from the dead ; and the effectual publication of the gos pel to multitudes of sinners, for their everlasting salvation? (See JoNAH, Book or.) Brown.