Ruth, Jonah, Esther

Believers Church Bible Commentary

Eugene F. Roop

• Publisher: Herald Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780836197990
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

In three of the Bible's most compelling short stories, Eugene F. Roop draws attention to the distinctive narrative characteristics of these magnificent dramas. Such scrutiny opens new vistas of interpretation that can undergird the faith, life, and neighborly relations of the church. As we enter the world of these struggles and events, we will experience in the stories sorrow and laughter, hope and loyalty, and God's mercy and grace.

Part 1

The Unfulfilled Prophetic Mission

Jonah 1—2

Jonah 1:1-3

The Commissioning of Jonah

PREVIEW

The reader has scarcely drawn a breath before being caught in the middle of a dispute between God and Jonah. The compact narration introduces the main characters, establishes the tension of the story, and sends the plot on its way. This fulfills the responsibility of the exposition in a short story [Short Story]. However, it all happens so quickly that the verses almost require rereading for the listener to get on board.

Even after rereading, the paragraph may raise more questions than provide information. Who is Jonah? How does the prophet receive this word from the LORD? Where is he at the time? How will God respond to Jonah’s flight? Some of our questions will eventually be answered; others will not. Such a lack of descriptive detail is characteristic of much Hebrew narrative [Characteristics]. We will fill in many missing details ourselves. In so doing, the reader becomes a fellow traveler with the story’s narrator. Other informational gaps are left open as the story bids us to hurry on.

This exposition introduces the two main characters, God and Jonah. But that happens almost as a matter secondary to God’s speech and Jonah’s action. The speech-action sequence divides the unit in two parts, 1:1-2 and 1:3. Given the content of God’s instruction and the nature of Jonah’s response, that split seems to mark more than a division in the unit.

OUTLINE

The Word from the LORD, 1:1-2

1: 1	Introduction of the Characters
1:2	Divine Word

The Response of Jonah, 1:3

1:3a	Statement of Flight
1: 3b	Detail of His Action

EXPLANATORY NOTES

The Word from the LORD 1:1-2

The narrative opens with phrases typical of introductions found in the book of the Twelve [Twelve Prophets]. In terms of length and information, the closest parallel to Jonah 1:1 appears in Joel 1:1, “The word of the LORD that came to Joel, son of Pethuel.” Most of the other prophetic books have much more extensive introductory words. Yet, reading the introduction to Jonah and Joel shows an important difference:

The word of the LORD came to Jonah.

The word of the Lord that came to Joel.

The word that signals the introduction of a list of oracles or prophetic sayings. That is just what the reader finds in Joel. On the other hand, the opening of Jonah introduces a narrative. Of all the prophetic books, only Jonah is essentially a narrative. While some of the other prophetic books have narrative sections, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, they are mostly oracles. The story character of Jonah has led to a discussion about whether Jonah should even be included with the other prophets (Dyck, 1986:210).

This narrative opening, though unique in the prophetic books, is found in other narratives about prophets. A glance at Elijah provides not only a parallel with the opening words in Jonah, but a striking contrast in the prophetic response:

The word of the LORD came to him [Elijah], saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belong to Sidon, and live there….” So he set out and went to Zarephath. (1 Kings 17:8-10)

Hence, the opening words of Jonah have a familiar ring to those acquainted with both the prophetic books and with other stories about prophets. Here we have a narrative about a prophet, even though Jonah—like Joel, Obadiah, and Nahum—is not explicitly called a prophet in the account (cf. Matt. 12:39).

The name Jonah son of Amittai directs us to 2 Kings 14:25. We know little about this prophet active in Israel during the time of Jeroboam II (787-747 B.C.). Jonah, as pictured in 2 Kings, announced to Jeroboam that God would expand Israel’s borders, because “the LORD saw that the distress of Israel was very bitter” (2 Kings 14:26). It is difficult to say how much we are to take from this brief note in 2 Kings for use in interpreting the narrative of Jonah. Daniel and Job provide other examples of narrative figures briefly mentioned elsewhere in the OT (Ezek. 14:14, 20; 28:3). The proverbial wisdom and righteousness of Daniel and Job figure in the narratives about them. The association of Jonah with anger over oppression by Assyria (733ff. B.C.) may lead us to understand that the prophet deeply identifies with the bitter distress of his people.

In translation, the name Jonah son of Amittai means “Dove, the son of truth (or trust).” Those who interpret the narrative as a parody, interpret Jonah’s name as satire (Holbert: 64). As a “dove,” Jonah neither carries out his responsibility, as did the dove of the flood (Gen. 8:6-12), nor does Jonah come bearing peace, as when the dove brought back the olive leaf. Furthermore, Jonah can scarcely be labeled a man of either truth or trust. He hides the truth from the sailors and ignores his trust from God.

However, we must not too quickly label Jonah a villain who betrays his own good name. The narrator gives us no cause to use such an interpretation of Jonah’s name as a key to understanding the story. If the dove signifies anything, it may be Jonah’s decision for flight and his subsequent passivity (Hauser: 22-3). As for Jonah, the son of truth or trust, not even God impugns Jonah’s integrity—his inadequate understanding of compassion, perhaps (4:10-11), but not Jonah’s integrity. In fact, ancient rabbinical commentary celebrated Jonah as a person of integrity and righteousness (Zucker: 366). The rabbis pointed out that no other biblical character sank into the depths of the sea and lived.

God’s instructions to Jonah (1:2) feature the same language we find in the commissioning of Elijah: “Go now/at once to Zarephath/Nineveh” (1 Kings 17:9; Jon. 1:2). The narrator wants us to know that, at least formally, Jonah’s commission is quite traditional. Furthermore, Jonah like Elijah is instructed to go to a foreign land. But the two prophets are not sent to the same land and not for the same purpose. Elijah goes to a Phoenician town to be cared for, perhaps even to be protected from Ahab (Gray: 380). Jonah is directed to go to Nineveh to cry out against it.

The text tells us only two things about Nineveh [Nineveh]. Nineveh is a great city, and the people are known by God for their wickedness. These two phrases tell us all we need to know about Nineveh for the purposes of this narrative. But the phrases carry even more significance than that. The terms evil/wicked (ra‘ah) and great (gadol) reappear frequently in various forms throughout the narrative [Characteristics of Hebrew Narrative]. Along with Nineveh, storm, fish, and anger are described as great. Hence, the story points to some element in every episode of the story as unusually large or intense. The repetition of the word great contributes to the humor, danger, and pathos of the narrative. Elements in this story grow to be as large and intense as the readers imagination will allow.

The word evil is a second key term in Jonah. It appears in every scene but chapter 2. The story of Jonah uses the word evil in a variety of ways. Sometimes evil is employed in a way we find quite unexpected. Therefore, when God intends evil (3:10), translations usually select a word quite different from evil (calamity, NRSV; destruction, NIV; cf. 1:7; 4:2). Jonah as well as God is associated with the word evil (4:1-2, 6). Evil is used to describe the circumstances that have enraged Jonah (4:1). He does not do evil, but great evil inundates Jonah (this was very displeasing, NRSV; greatly displeased, NIV). In summary, even as Nineveh, God, and Jonah are connected by the word great, so they are also bound together in a web of evil.

This story is not about evil versus good or great versus small. Evil touches the actions of all the characters in the drama: Nineveh, God, and Jonah. This is a “great” story, featuring a great city, a great storm, a great fish, and great evil. We do the narrative a disservice if we assign all the positive adjectives to one character and the negative ones to the another. God does not do that, and neither does the literary device of word repetition.

God instructs Jonah to cry out against Nineveh (1:2). Jonah receives no instructions as to the exact words he must announce. The text leaves little doubt, however, that God calls for the announcement of disaster or judgment. We will see that in the second commissioning speech to Jonah, God’s instructions are somewhat more specific (3:2, 4). In this case, however, God commissions Jonah to go the great city of Israel’s hated enemy and to denounce the evil of its people [Nineveh].

The Response of Jonah 1:3

To sense the shock inherent in Jonah’s response, we need only to remember the parallel commissioning of Elijah.

The word of the LORD came to him [Elijah], saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there.” … So he set out and went to Zarephath. (1 Kings 17:9-10)

In the Bible, reluctance on the part of an individual receiving a divine commission is not uncommon. Moses, Gideon, and Jeremiah all responded to God’s commissioning by raising some objection, usually based on their personal inadequacy (Exod. 3:11; Judg. 6:15; Jer. 1:6). They were all eventually persuaded to accept their responsibility. Jonah does not say a word in response to the divine commissioning. Neither did Elijah. Elijah’s silence issued in compliance; he did as instructed. Jonah’s silence issued in a different action; Jonah fled. He did exactly the opposite of his instructions. God told him to rise up and “go at once. ” Jonah rose up and fled (EFR; set out to flee, NRSV).

The direction of Jonah’s flight is down. Indeed, this will be the direction of Jonah’s movement until he ends up in the belly of a fish. The word down is reinforced by other directional words. Jonah not only goes down, but from: from the presence of the LORD (1:3). Further, he goes toward Tarshish. All the words in this tightly packed narration work together to put distance between Jonah and God.

We do not know the exact location of Tarshish. Much interpretive tradition locates Tarshish on the west coast of Spain. However, the various places for which the Bible uses the name point in different directions (Gordon: 517-8). All the references to Tarshish have two elements in common. Getting to Tarshish always requires a sea voyage. All references agree that Tarshish is a long way from Israel. In terms of this narrative, Tarshish is the geographical opposite of Nineveh, regardless of the precise location or direction (Ackerman, 1987:235). Hence, all the directional words and locational words reinforce the initial verbs: Jonah rose and fled.

The narration of Jonah’s response concludes by repeating the purpose of his flight. Jonah intends to get away from the presence of the LORD (1:3). Frequently in the biblical stories, one flees to escape an intolerable relationship (Limburg, 1988:140). Hagar fled Sarah (Gen. 16:6), Jacob fled Laban (Gen. 31:20), and Moses fled Pharaoh (Exod. 2:15)—all hoping to reach a place outside the threatening power of the other party.

Israel constantly wrestled with the question of whether one could go to a place beyond God’s reach and power. Those relocated from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar’s army were not sure they could sing and worship God in a foreign land (Ps. 137:4; 2 Kings 24-25). God’s power and presence might not reach that far. Several times the psalmist suggests that death lies beyond the realm of God’s relationship if not reach (Ps. 6:5; 30:9; 88:10).

We do not know what Jonah is thinking. The narrator leaves Jonah’s inner thoughts to readers’ imagination. Conceivably, Jonah believes he can escape God’s domain. But that seems unlikely. Amos declared that even Sheol does not exceed God’s reach (9:2; cf. Ps. 139:8). Jonah’s own confession of faith denies the possibility that Jonah could escape God’s presence: “I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land” (1:9). The reader knows this, and one can suspect that Jonah does also. However, Jonah does not explain his action—not yet. We have only the narrator’s description of what Jonah does, nothing about why he does it.

THE TEXT IN BIBLICAL CONTEXT

Commissioning of the Prophet

We have many biblical narratives that describe the commissioning of a prophet. These commissioning moments each have their own distinctive elements, but they also have much in common. In one set of narratives, the prophet responds to God’s address with an objection. God responds to the prophet’s objection with a promise of presence and assistance and usually confirms this promise with a sign. For example, Jeremiah objects because of his youth (1:6). God promises to be with him (1:8) and reaches out to the prophet’s mouth with a divine touch (1:9).

A visit to the divine council constitutes the prime feature in other reports of the commissioning of a prophet. For example, in a terrifying experience in the temple, Isaiah tells of being carried to a divine council meeting (6:1). After his confession and pardon, this prophet volunteers to be the council’s messenger (6:5-8). Surprisingly, Isaiah is commissioned to assist God in bringing disaster on the prophet’s own people (6:9-10).

There is at least one other type of commissioning of a prophet, as represented by Elijah (1 Kings 17-19). After receiving a divine commission, Elijah offers no verbal response at all; he simply acts to carry out God’s instructions. This pattern we also find in the NT narratives reporting the call of the disciples. Jesus tells the disciples, “Follow me.” Without saying a word, the disciples drop what they are doing and follow (Matt. 4:18-22; Mark. 1:16-20).

The commissioning of Jonah follows this latter pattern. The surprise to the earliest listeners was not that the prophet might receive instructions from God, even though that might be unusual in our experience. For the biblical narrative, the surprise is Jonah’s response. He goes the other way. Reluctance would be considered normal. Jonah’s flight makes him one of a kind. The reader has no biblical precedent for anticipating what will follow.

THE TEXT IN LIFE OF THE CHURCH

Reluctant Response

When confronted with a commission from God, an individual’s life changes. From the moment of his call, everything depends on how Jonah will respond (LaCocque, 1981:33). Jonah decides to flee.

Interpreters often speculate about the reason for Jonah...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Believers Church Bible Commentary
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Abbreviations
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Author’s Preface
• Ruth
• Jonah
• Part 1: The Unfulfilled Prophetic Mission
• Part 2: The Unfulfilled Prophet
• Esther
• Scene 1 Tension in the Royal Court
• Scene 2 Action and Counteraction
• Scene 3 Resolution and Celebration
• Epilogue: Ahasuerus and Mordecai
• Outline of Esther
• Essays
• Bibliography
• Selected Resources
• Index of Ancient Sources
• The Author