Jonah and the Whale

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

-- Jonah 1: 17 (KJV)

There are several surprises to the story of Jonah. First, not a single English proverb or catchphrase derives from it; and, second, despite its fame it is only four short chapters (forty-eight verses) long. Third, the text never -- in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, or English -- refers to a "whale." Perhaps there's no other candidate for the "great fish" mentioned here in the King James Version, but those who remember Leviathan will avoid drawing hasty conclusions.

Whatever the fish, the Lord means to teach the coward Jonah a few lessons. At the beginning of the tale, God calls Jonah to go condemn the evils of "Ninevah, that great city" (Jonah 1: 2; Ninevah, located on the Tigris River, was once the capital of Assyria and had probably fallen into Persian hands by the time of Jonah's call). Jonah, however, isn't one bit interested in the job, and to escape from "the presence of the Lord" he hops a ship going the other way -- namely, to Spain.

Unamused, Yahweh harries the vessel with winds and tempests, until its terrified crew hauls Jonah from his hiding place and forces him to confess. Suitably impressed by the power of Jonah's God, they decide the best way to save their ship is to toss Jonah overboard. This is where God steps in with his "great fish," in whose belly Jonah cowers three days and three nights.

This gives Jonah sufficient time to pen a hymn of thanksgiving to Yahweh, which he recites from the belly of the fish. Hearing this, "the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land" (2: 10) -- in other words, right back where he started from. Only this time he does go to Ninevah, prophesying the city's imminent doom, which for once causes the people to repent. As far as God is concerned, that's the happy ending to the whole business.

Here things take a surprising turn: Jonah is actually angry that his preaching has worked, and that God has spared the city despite its history of wickedness. Clearly, Jonah has learned nothing about mercy from his experience in the fish's belly, and God has to teach him another lesson -- this time with a gourd and a worm. To make a long story short, it repeats the lesson of the first: that God values his creations and doesn't destroy them easily.

 
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Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!