JONAH (r1Y14; Sept. 'Lovas), 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 as the son of Amittai in 2 Kings xiv. 25. The Jewish doctors, followed by some of the fathers, have supposed him to be the son of the widow of Sarepta : 'Now by this I know,' said she to Elijah, that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth' mt.; (1 Kings xvii, 24). The restored child was thenceforward named ,nnt.riz, a title which was to preserve the memory of his miraculous resuscitation (Hieron. Prefat. in yonam). His birthplace was Gath hepher, in the tribe of Zebulun. In that place, according to Jerome, his grave was pointed out, and El-Meshad is identified by ecclesiastical tradi tion with Gath-hepher. Jonah flourished in the beginning of the reign of Jeroboam II., and pre dicted the successful conquests, enlarged territory, and brief prosperity of 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 dis covery of it in chaps. xv. and xvi. of Isaiah. Hit zig, Des Prop/1. Ion. °rake' aber Minzb kriiisch vindieirl, etc., Heidelberg 1S31.
The book of Jonah contains an account of the prophet's commission to denounce 'Nineveh, and of his refusal to undertake the embassy—of the method he employed to escape the unwelcome task [TARsHisx], and the miraculous means which God uso.d to curb his self-willed spirit, and subdue his pedant and querulous disposition. The third and fourth chapters briefly detail Jonah's fulfilment of the divine command, and present us with another exemplification of his refractory temper. His at tempt to flee from the presence of the Lord must have sprung from a partial insanity, produced by the excitement of distracting motives in an irascible and melancholy heart. The temerity and folly of the fugitive could scarcely be credited, if they had not been equalled by future outbreaks of a similar peevish and morbid infatuation. Dr. Pusey's diluted interpretation of the phrase rrim +nn, as if it signified only an evasion of the mission, or that he fled from officially standing in the divine presence, does not relieve us of the difficulty. It
was as absurd in Hebrew creed to attempt tc escape the divine omnipotence as it was to elude the divine omnipresence. But men in certain moods have often tried to do what their theology tells them is utterly in vain, and such actions done against a conviction of their vanity is yet no proof of theoretic unbelief.
The history of Jonah is certainly striking and extraordinary. His mission was to a distant city, brought about that time into closer connection with Israel. There is no precise parallel to it, for the mission of Elisha to Damascus is not quite analogous. But is any act of God to be suspected if it happen to want a direct historical parallel ? Must we reject every apparent anomaly in the procedure of him whose ways are not our ways ?' The Divine Being had made himself known tc other nations in various forms ; as in Egypt by Moses and his wonders, and in Philistia by the captivity of his ark. The influence of the theocracy on surrounding countries might be extended in a variety of ways, and Jonah's refusal of the message is as suggestive as his subsequent performance of it.
The extraordinary character given to Jonah in this book is so unflattering to the well-known national pride and partialities, that it is a pre sumption in favour of its historic reality. The tale of the prophet's flight is true to life ;—the sudden departure to the westward—the paying of the fare when he took ship—the different effects produced by the storm on the crew and their pas senger—they in their panic crying to their gods, and he fast asleep in the sides of the ship' wearied out with anxiety and terror—his convic tion that Jehovah had overtaken him, and his sullen resignation to his fate—the casting of the lots, and the dialogue that followed—the reluctance of the sailors to do an act of murder for their own safety, even though the prophet had enjoined them —their prayer to Jonah's God in their extremity— the casting out of Jonah—the calm that followed, and the effect on the simple mariners—their de voutness and their sacrifice, not now to their OWD divinities, but to Jehovah.