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The Prophet Jonah

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- Chapter 1 -

(Nahum 1:1–15)
1
And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying:(a)
2
Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it. For its malice has ascended before my eyes.(b)
3
And Jonah rose in order to flee from the face of the Lord to Tarshish. And he went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. And he paid its fare, and he went down into it, in order to go with them to Tarshish from the face of the Lord.(c) (d)

The Great Storm

(Acts 27:13–26)
4
But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea. And a great tempest took place in the sea, and the ship was in danger of being crushed.
5
And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried out to their god. And they threw the containers that were in the ship into the sea in order to lighten it of them. And Jonah went down into the interior of the ship, and he fell into a painful deep sleep.(e) (f)
6
And the helmsman approached him, and he said to him, “Why are you weighed down with sleep? Rise, call upon your God, so perhaps God will be mindful of us and we might not perish.”
7
And a man said to his shipmate, “Come, and let us cast lots, so that we may know why this disaster is upon us.” And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
8
And they said to him: “Explain to us what is the reason that this disaster is upon us. What is your work? Which is your country? And where are you going? Or which people are you from?”
9
And he said to them, “I am Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10
And the men were greatly afraid, and they said to him, “Why have you done this?” (For the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he had told them.)

Jonah Cast into the Sea

11
And they said to him, “What are we to do with you, so that the sea will cease for us?” For the sea flowed and swelled.
12
And he said to them, “Take me, and cast me into the sea, and the sea will cease for you. For I know that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”
13
And the men were rowing, so as to return to dry land, but they did not succeed. For the sea flowed and swelled against them.(g) (h)
14
And they cried out to the Lord, and they said, “We beseech you, Lord, do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not attribute to us innocent blood. For you, Lord, have done just as it pleased you.”
15
And they took Jonah and cast him into the sea. And the sea was stilled from its fury.
16
And the men feared the Lord greatly, and they sacrificed victims to the Lord, and they made vows.

Footnotes

(a)1:1 Or, ‘And the word of the Lord happened to Jonah the son of Amittai....’(Conte)
(b)1:2 Nineve:The capital city of the Assyrian empire.(Challoner)
(c)1:3 Why is the word ‘and’ found so frequently in the Bible? One answer is that the Latin lanuage, in Biblical times, was written with no punctuation, no spaces between the words, and no difference between capital and small letters. So the word ‘and’ (in Latin ‘et’) as well as other words (e.g. ‘for,’ ‘which,’ etc.) had much the same function as punctuation. Repeated use of the word ‘and’ allowed the reader to more easily locate the individual words.(Conte)
(d)1:3 Tharsis:Which some take to be Tharsus of Cilicia, others to be Tartessus of Spain, others to be Carthage.(Challoner)
(e)1:5 This last phrase is difficult to translate literally: ‘dormiebat’ means to sleep, but ‘sopore’ is an adverb meaning sleepy. The two words together emphasize that it was a deep sleep. But adding ‘gravi’ makes qualifies this deep sleep even further, in that it was painful or grave or heavy.(Conte)
(f)1:5 A deep sleep:This is a lively image of the insensibility of sinners, fleeing from God, and threatened on every side with his judgments: and yet sleeping as if they were secure.(Challoner)
(g)1:13 The men of this ship are repeatedly referred to as ‘viri,’ not merely as ‘homines.’ The word ‘vir’ is rather like the English word ‘gentleman’ in that it implies something about the man other than that he is an adult male. The root of the word ‘viri’ is a word meaning virtue or strength. The men of this ship were not bad men, yet they threw Jonah overboard, in accordance with God’s will.(Conte)
(h)1:13 Also, though the Douay-Rheims translates this as ‘rowed hard,’ the word ‘hard’ is not justified by the Latin text. However, the very fact that they were rowing shows the extraordinary effort that they went to, since this was certainly a sailing vessel, with oars only for exceptional circumstances.(Conte)
(Nahum 1:1–15)
1
Now the LORD’s(a) word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
3
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

The Great Storm

(Acts 27:13–26)
4
But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up.
5
Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship and he was laying down, and was fast asleep.
6
So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God!(b) Maybe your God (c) will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”
7
They all said to each other, “Come! Let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
8
Then they asked him, “Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?”
9
He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God (d) of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”
10
Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

Jonah Cast into the Sea

11
Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy.
12
He said to them, “Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.”
13
Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them.
14
Therefore they cried to the LORD, and said, “We beg you, LORD, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, LORD, have done as it pleased you.”
15
So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging.
16
Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
17
The LORD prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Footnotes

(a)1:1 When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name.
(b)1:6 or, gods
(c)1:6 or, gods
(d)1:9 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).
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