THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, Jl:DITED BY TBll
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D .• PB.AN OJ' GLOt10Blrl'IIIB ,
A1'ID BY TD
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
JON A H. Gxposftfon BY REV. W. J. DEANE, M.A., UO'l'OB OJ' ASBlllll'.
l!1omfletfcs BY REV. PROFESSOR J. R. THOMSON, M.A.
~omilfes b!'.1 Ftttfous ~utbott. REV J. E. HENRY, M.A. REV, G. T. COSTER. REV. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D. REV. A. ROWLAND, B.A., LL.B. BEV. D. THOM.AS, D.D.
NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 THE BOOK OF JONAH. INTR•O DUCTION.
§ I. SUBJECT 01!' THE BOOL THE Book of Jone.h is not e. prophecy, but an account of the prophet's mission to Nineveh to announce it:,s speedy destruction. It is concerned chiefly with Jonah's own personal feelings and history in relation to this mission. Possessed with the national hatred of idolatrous Gentiles, and fearing that God, in his great long-suffering, might, after all, spare these Assyrians to whom he was sent, and that thus his prediction would be discredited and a heathen nation saved, he attempted to escape the unwelcome errand. Mingled with this apprehension there may have been a personal dread of ill treatment at the hands of the cruel and ferocious Assyrians, who would have little respect for an alien prophet, and would probably punish his pretensions with torture and death. But this con- sideration would have had small influence had his heart been right. He is bold enough when he comes to himself. He knew his duty, but at the present moment determined to avoid its fulfilment. Accordingly, he fled to Joppa and took ship for Tarshish. The providence of God followed him. A violent storm arose, and the criw of the vessel, surmising that it was sent by Heaven as a judgment, cast lotr. in order to discover who was the guilty person among them. Jonah, being thus designated, confesses the truth, and at his own earnest request is cast into the sea. He is, however, not drowned . .A. huge fish swallows him, and after three days vomits him forth, and he lands safely on the shore. He then humbly obeys the will of God, sets out, and executes his mission to Nineveh. The king of that city, having 'beard probably of his strange deliverance from the deep, and believing him to be a. messenger from Heaven, ordered a general fa-st, and by timely repentance averted the threatened doom. Jonah, from national idiosyn- crasies, grudging the mercy thus conceded to a heathen nation, showed his displeasure in a. marked manner. A better lesson was taught him by a. little incident. A gourd, under whose grateful shade he had sat the live- JONAH, Ii Ii IN'l'HODUC'l'ION TO
long day, withered away, and left him exposed to the burning Eastern sun; and he grieved bitterly over the gourd. Then God shows him how unreasonable he is in lamenting for this plant, in whose growth he had no hand, which rose in a. night and perished in a night, and yet in being angry that he, the God of mercy, should have pity on this great city filled with half a million of souls. 0£ the moral corruption of Nineveh, which was the occasion of the threatened punishment, other prophets speak. "Woe to the bloody city!" says Nahum (iii. 1); "it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;" "Upon whom bath not thy wickedness passed continually?" (iii. 19). "This is the joyous city," cries Zephaniah (ii. 15), "that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is noiie else beside me." "The annals of Assyria," says Layard (' Nineveh and Babylon,' p. 631), quoted by Trochon, "are nothing but a register of military campaigns, spoliations, and cruelties. Their monuments display men of a calm and unmoved ferocity, whose moral and mental qualities are overborne by the faculties of the lower, brutal nature." In the book before us we can trace three stages leading to the final lesson. The first is Jonah's conversion, with its various scenes, ending in his acquiescence in the Divine call and his second mission. Then follow the solemn annunciation to Nineveh, and the repentance of king and people. Lastly we have J onah's displeasure at the non-accomplishment of the predicted overthrow, and the better lesson which God vouchsafes to teach him. These parts, and every portion of them, are replete with most important trnthB and types and figures. It is this didactic and symbolical character that has caused the book to be inserted among the prophets. In its history there is, indeed, concealed prophecy of the highest importance which our eyes are open to discern. To the Jew, perhaps, the chief lesson which it was meant to teach was the capacity of the Gentiles for salvation, and that God designed to make them partakers thereof. This was a truth hard to be learned. The Israelites had been often warned that the Gentiles were ordained to be the punishers of their disobedience and apostasy; hence they looked upon them as bitter enemies, incapable of salvation, and cherished all the prophecies concerning their final overthrow, over- looking or misinterpreting those that spoke of their conversion and entrance into the kingdom of God. The possibility of the admission of aliens to the privileges of Abraham's seed had now to be enforced. Other prophets enunciated this great trnth in plain words or under dark sayings; Jon.ah acted it, expressed it in action. He was forced to show that it was his duty to sympathize with others who wished to turn to God; to help, not to impede, their efforts. He is made to exhibit the unreasonableness and impiety of a spirit like that of the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son, who is jealous of the mercy bestowed upon the returning penitent. In his great candour he places even the heathen sailors in the ca.Legory of possible believers: they cry to the Lord, fear him, offer se.cri- THE DOOK OF JONAII.