Jonah 1:1-6
Down to Joppa, down into the ship
The verbs run downwards through the chapter. He pays the fare, goes below, and is fast asleep while the crew throws cargo overboard and the captain comes to ask him to pray.
People of the Bible
Jonah
Ran from an assignment, was given it again, carried it out in eight words, and then sulked because it worked.
Jonah is told to go to Nineveh, the capital of the empire that will eventually destroy his country, and he goes to Joppa and takes a ship in the opposite direction. The storm does not frighten him; he is asleep below deck and the pagan sailors are praying. He tells them to throw him overboard, they try to row back to land first, and only when they cannot do they do it, and then they fear and sacrifice. Three days later he preaches the shortest sermon in Scripture, and the whole city repents.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Jonah
- 01
- 02
Jonah 1:11-16
Take me up and cast me forth
He gives them the answer and they refuse it, rowing hard to bring the ship to land. When they finally do as he says, they pray not to be charged with innocent blood, and afterwards they sacrifice.
- 03
Jonah 2:1-10
Out of the belly of hell
A psalm from inside the fish, made almost entirely out of quotations from other psalms. The weeds are wrapped about his head, and salvation is of the LORD.
- 04
Jonah 3:1-10
Yet forty days
Eight words in Hebrew, five in English, with no mention of God, repentance or hope. The people believe, the king comes off his throne, and the beasts are put in sackcloth.
- 05
Jonah 4:1-11
Should I not spare Nineveh
He is angry and says he knew God was gracious and merciful, which is why he fled. He sits east of the city to watch, and the argument ends with a gourd, a worm, and a question about a great city.
Why it matters
Jonah is the only prophetic book where the prophet is the problem, and the joke is on him throughout: the sailors behave better than he does, the fish obeys, the plant obeys, the worm obeys, the wind obeys, and the city obeys. He is angry about the mercy and says he knew this would happen, which is why he ran. The book ends on a question God asks him and he never answers, about a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left.
13 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
