JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 4:1 Jonah’s Angry Prayer. The sixth episode parallels the third (Jonah 1:17) and focuses on Jonah’s self-centeredness and hypocrisy. Both episodes have the same structure: (1) Jonah “prayed to the LORD” (Jonah 1:17 and Jonah 4:1); (2) Jonah’s prayer (Jonah 2:1 and Jonah 4:2); and... [ Continue Reading ]
JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 4:2 This is Jonah’s second prayer. The repetition of PRAYED TO THE LORD (see Jonah 2:1) invites the reader to compare the two. GRACIOUS GOD... RELENTING FROM DISASTER. Ironically, this great confession of God’s compassionate nature (see Exodus 34:6; Psalms 145:8) is the cause of... [ Continue Reading ]
JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 4:3 MY LIFE translates the Hebrew for “my soul,” and TO LIVE translates the Hebrew for “my life.” These two expressions occur in Jonah’s first prayer, where he is grateful that his “life” was brought up from the pit (Jonah 2:6) and that his fainting “life/soul” was revived (Jonah... [ Continue Reading ]
JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 4:5 Jonah’s Lesson about Compassion. The seventh and final episode has no parallel and thus stands out as the climax of the story. ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ var images = document.getElementsByTagName("img"); for (var i=0, len=images.length, img; i [ Continue Reading ]
JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 4:6 THE LORD GOD APPOINTED. This is the second use of the verb “appoint” (see note on 1:17). DISCOMFORT (or “evil”; see esv footnote and note on 1:2) refers both to Jonah’s outer “discomfort” and to his inner “evil.” JONAH WAS EXCEEDINGLY GLAD. The grammar of this phrase is ident... [ Continue Reading ]
JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 4:9 ANGRY FOR THE PLANT. God questions the justice of Jonah’s anger over the destruction of the plant (v. Jonah 4:4). ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ var images = document.getElementsByTagName("img"); for (var i=0, len=images.length, img; i [ Continue Reading ]
JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 4:10 PERISHED. Finally Jonah expresses concern over something perishing. Sadly, it is only the plant, not the 120,000 people WHO DO NOT KNOW THEIR RIGHT HAND FROM THEIR LEFT, which means that they were untaught regarding moral or spiritual issues. ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ var images = document.get... [ Continue Reading ]