JONAH · 1 OF 4
Jonah and the storm
A prophet receives a task and boards a ship going elsewhere. Read the storm through its changing voices and actions, not only through the part of the story you remember.
In this lesson
Meet a prophet in a story
Tanakh is our Bible: Torah (Teaching), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). Jonah belongs to Prophets, within the Twelve, a collection of twelve shorter prophetic books. Their shorter length does not make their teaching less important. Our books gives the larger map.
A prophet, Hebrew navi, receives and conveys God’s word. Jonah, also called Yonah, is the son of Amittai. 2 Kings 14:25 names him as a prophet in Israel’s monarchy, the period of kings in our people’s history. This book lets us follow a prophet through a narrative, a story of actions and conversations, as well as through the message he delivers.
Hashem, “the Name,” is our reverent way of referring to God in ordinary study. A narrator tells us what happens; direct speech gives words to a particular speaker. If you have read Ruth, bring that distinction with you. If you are starting here, the English supplies everything needed.
קוּם לֵךְ אֶל־נִינְוֵה הָעִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה וּקְרָא עָלֶיהָ
וַיָּקָם יוֹנָה לִבְרֹחַ תַּרְשִׁישָׁה מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה1. Hashem’s word came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying:
2. “Rise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
3. Jonah rose to flee toward Tarshish, away from the presence of Hashem. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. He paid its fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of Hashem.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva · Hebrew verse numbering
Nineveh is an Assyrian city outside Israel. Joppa, Hebrew Yafo, is the port where Jonah boards. Tarshish is his intended destination. For this reading, track the named destinations rather than trying to settle a debated modern location for Tarshish.
1. Where does Jonah belong in Tanakh, and what task does he receive?
The book belongs to Prophets, within the Twelve. Hashem tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and proclaim against it because of its wickedness. A prophet’s task here is to convey a message, not simply to predict an unusual event.
2. Does “Jonah rose” mean that he obeyed?
Read the rest of verse 3: he rose to flee toward Tarshish. The repeated action “rise” makes the different purpose stand out. A matching word is a reason to compare, not a reason to stop reading.
A worked reading: rise and call
A sailor works the ship; its captain directs the crew. Cargo is the load the ship carries. Watch what these people do while Jonah sleeps.
קוּם קְרָא אֶל־אֱלֹהֶיךָ
4. Hashem hurled a great wind onto the sea. A great storm arose at sea, and the ship was on the point of breaking apart.
5. The sailors were afraid. Each cried to his god, and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten their load. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship. He lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
6. The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? Rise! Call to your God! Perhaps God will take notice of us, so that we do not perish.”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva · Hebrew verse numbering
Compare the commands in verses 2 and 6 with three questions: Who speaks? Whom should Jonah address? Why?
- Hashem tells Jonah to rise, go to Nineveh and proclaim against it.
- The captain tells Jonah to rise and call to his God during the storm.
- The same “rise” and “call” language returns, but the speaker, immediate audience and situation change. The captain’s words bring the sleeping Jonah back into the crisis around him.
3. Contrast the sailors’ actions with Jonah’s actions in verses 4–6.
The sailors fear, cry out and throw cargo overboard to lighten the ship. Jonah has gone down, lain down and fallen deeply asleep. The captain approaches him. These are reported actions; the passage has not given us a diagnosis or a complete explanation of Jonah’s sleep.
What Jonah says, and what the narrator adds
Casting lots means selecting by drawn objects; this account does not specify the objects used. After the lot falls, the sailors question Jonah. Keep their questions, his quoted answer and the narrator’s explanation distinct.
עִבְרִי אָנֹכִי וְאֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם אֲנִי יָרֵא
אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה אֶת־הַיָּם וְאֶת־הַיַּבָּשָׁה7. They said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so we may know on whose account this trouble has come upon us.” They cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
8. They said to him, “Please tell us: on whose account has this trouble come upon us? What is your work? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9. He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Hashem, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10. The men became deeply afraid and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Hashem, because he had told them.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva · Hebrew verse numbering
“I am a Hebrew” identifies Jonah with the people of Israel, not merely with a language. “I fear Hashem” speaks of religious reverence. The surrounding uses of fear also describe the sailors’ alarm. Follow the object and setting of the word rather than giving every occurrence an identical emotional shade.
4. What does verse 10 tell us that is not quoted in verse 9?
Jonah had told the sailors that he was fleeing from Hashem’s presence. Verse 9 gives a selected answer, while verse 10 summarizes additional information. We should not treat the earlier quotation as everything he ever said to them.
Radak, Rabbi David Kimhi, is one of our biblical commentators. He explains “from the presence of Hashem” as Jonah’s attempt to leave the prophetic encounter and commission. Jonah is not presented as a man who has discovered a sea beyond God’s reach. Radak helps us read the flight alongside Jonah’s own profession about the Creator.
Radak on Jonah 1:3. A commentary explains the verse; it is not an extra sentence spoken by the narrator.
5. Why does “who made the sea and the dry land” sharpen the tension?
Jonah names Hashem as maker of the very sea on which he is fleeing. His profession and his direction of travel belong beside each other. Radak’s explanation focuses the tension on the prophetic task; we need not invent a belief that God cannot reach the ship.
Follow an action through the whole chapter
Now transfer the worked method to “hurl.” The Hebrew forms are related: הֵטִיל in verse 4, וַיָּטִלוּ in verse 5, and וַיְטִלֻהוּ in verse 15. You can do the same work in English. For each occurrence, name the actor and what is hurled.
7. Compare the three hurling actions.
Hashem hurls wind onto the sea; the sailors hurl cargo into the sea; the sailors hurl Jonah into the sea. These are three actions with two distinct acting subjects. The changing objects carry the scene from storm, through an attempted remedy, to the action after which the sea grows quiet.
8. Repair this conclusion: “Every storm proves someone aboard is guilty, and lots will identify the offender.”
The narrator identifies Hashem’s action and Jonah’s situation in this event. The story does not establish a general procedure for diagnosing disasters or assigning blame. Keep the particular source evidence rather than turning it into an accusation against people in danger.
Likewise, Jonah’s proposal belongs to this narrative. Our task is to read it with the sailors’ hesitation and prayer, not to imitate a dangerous act.
The chapter asks us to hear a profession of faith beside actions and to notice the sailors’ changing response. Careful reading gives us more than a quick label for any person in the scene.
Return tomorrow
9. Without looking, explain how the sailors’ calling and fear change. Then check your evidence.
In verse 5 each sailor calls to his own god. In verse 10 they become deeply afraid when they know about Jonah’s flight. In verse 14 they call to Hashem; in verse 16 they fear Hashem, offer a sacrifice and make vows.
A good answer gives at least one earlier/later contrast and its verse evidence. It does not need to invent an unreported ceremony or make every person’s inward thought identical.
Return to the sources
- Jonah 1:1–16: the complete Hebrew-numbered chapter.
- Radak on Jonah 1:3: flight and the prophetic commission.
- The Tanakh index and Bava Batra 14b, the passage on the order of Prophets: Jonah’s place and the Twelve.
- 2 Kings 14:25: Jonah son of Amittai named as prophet. 2 Kings 19:36 places Nineveh in an Assyrian setting in a different episode; it does not identify Jonah’s unnamed king.