Jonah was a prophet in 8th century BC Israel who was commanded by God to preach in Nineveh. However, Jonah disobeyed and fled by ship to Tarshish. A great storm arose and the sailors discovered Jonah was responsible, throwing him overboard. Jonah was swallowed by a large fish and after praying, was spit out on dry land. Jonah then obeyed God and traveled to Nineveh, preaching repentance. The entire city repented, sparing it from destruction. Despite this, Jonah remained angry that God showed mercy to Nineveh.

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2. JONAH
(joh’nuh) HEBREW: YONA means “dove”
Jonah son of Amittai was an eight-century
B.C prophet from Gath-hepher, a small
Galilean town near Nazareth. He first
appears in the Bible to foretell that King
Jeroboam II of Israel will restore the borders
of the nation “from the entrance of Hamath as
far as the sea of the Arabah [Dead Sea]”.
The book of Jonah is written between the 6th
and 4th centuries B.C

3. Jonah is unique among
the 12 Minor Prophets in
that his book contains
little prophecy; its single
oracular statement,
“Yet Forty days, and
Nineveh shall be
overthrown!” (Jon 3:4)
The tale begins with
the Lord’s command to
Jonah: “Arise, go to
Nineveh, that great city,
and cry against it; for
their wickedness has

4. Nineveh, the capital of the powerful
Assyrian empire, a city so large it took three
days to cross, was called “the bloody city, all
fall of lies and booty” (Nah 3:1) by the
prophet Nahum.
But Jonah decided to disobey God. He went
to the seaport of Joppa and broaded a ship
heading for Tarshish. He pays his way to flee
from God’s call.
As the ship sailed across the sea, God sent a
great storm that threatened to break it apart.
The captain wakens him and urges him to

5. When the crew cast lots to find out
if any passenger was responsible for
the storm, Jonah revealed as the
guilty party.
They ask him to tell them who he is
and where he’s from. ‘I am a Hebrew,
and I worship the Lord, the God of
heaven, who made the sea and the
land’. (Jon 1:9)

6. Realizing that God had sent a storm
because of his disobedience, Jonah
begged to be thrown overboard. His
wish was reluctantly granted and, as
soon as he was cast into the sea, the
storm abated.

7. Swallowed by the fish, Jonah cried out to
God for deliverance. Heeding the prophet’s
anguished prayer, “the Lord spoke to the
fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry

8. Again God ordered Jonah to preach in
Nineveh.
Nineveh’s king and people repented,
dressing themselves and even their
animals in Sackloth as a sign of remorse.
In response to the
contrition of Nineveh’s
residents, “God
repented of the evil
which he had said he
would do to them” (Jon
3:10)

9. Sitting in the hot sun, Jonah
pleaded with God to end his life;
but God created a plant to shade
him. Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s
Compassion – Jonah is angry with
God, and prays angrily:
~ this is just what I feared You
would do, God !
~ I fled to Tarshish because I
knew You would relent and not
send calamity on Ninevah.
~ ‘I knew that You are a gracious
and compassionate God, slow to
anger and abounding in love’

10. God questions Jonah’s ‘right to be angry’
about the vine. Jonah says he absolutely does
have the right to be angry enough to die!
God points out that Jonah was upset about
a vine which grew up one day and withered
the next, whereas Ninevah had more than
120,00 people living in it (not to mention the
animals); so, then, the book of Jonah ends
with God asking him a question, ‘Should I
not be concerned about that great city?’ (Jon
4:11)
God is keen to teach Jonah compassion…He

11. Jesus was later to draw a
parallel between the “three
days and three nights” (Mt.
12:39-40) he would face after
the crucifixion and Jonah’s
days and nights inside the fish.