Jonah 1:16-2:10



Jonah 1:16-2:10

(Note on the text: there is a discrepancy in verse numbering between that used for the Hebrew text and the English translations. In the Hebrew text, Ch. 1 ends with v. 16, and so the verse 17 of our English translations is actually 2:1 of the Hebrew, and so it is necessary to add 1 to the English verse numbers of Ch. 2 to get the corresponding Hebrew verse number! The ESV interlinear version shown below uses the Hebrew verse numbering.)

This is the famous passage where Jonah is swallowed by the great fish, and eventually vomited out onto the dry land. I would like first to give the analysis by Ernst Wendland, (JETS 39/3 (September 1996) 373–395, and freely downloadable from the Internet). My own attempted analysis basically follows that of E. Wendland, but I have made some modifications in the details as well as providing some word count data. The word count confirms the essential correctness of E. Wendland’s analysis since, for example, the thematic centre and centre by word count coincide exactly.

1) Analysis by E. Wendland

Here is E. Wendland’s analysis with his comments:

A. At this the men greatly feared the Lord,

and they offered a sacrifce to the Lord

and made vows to him. (1:16)

B. But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah,

and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. (1:17)

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. (2:1)

He said:

C. “In my distress I called to the Lord,

and he answered me.

From the depths of Sheol I called for help,

and you listened to my cry. (2:2)

D. You hurled me into the deep,

into the very heart of the seas, (2:3a)

E. and the currents swirled about me;

all your waves and breakers swept over me. (2:3b)

F. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; (2:4a)

F`. Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ (2:4b)

E`. The engulfng waters threatened me,

the deep surrounded me;

seaweed was wrapped around my head. (2:5)

D`. To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

the earth beneath me barred me in forever. (2:6a)

C`. But you brought my life up from the pit,

O Lord my God. (2:6b)

When my life was ebbing away,

I remembered you, Lord,

and my prayer rose to you,

to your holy temple. (2:7)

A`. Those who cling to worthless idols

forfeit the grace that could be theirs. (2:8)

But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good.

Salvation comes from the Lord!” (2:9)

B`. And the Lord commanded the fish,

and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (2:10)

Comments by E. Wendland from the previously mentioned article:

As one notices from the preceding figure, the psalm of Jonah, which is a pastiche of various excerpts from the Psalter, forms only a part of the elaborate structure as a whole—namely, its major medial portion (2:2–9). It is enclosed by two obviously corresponding narrative frames that describe the prophet’s initial predicament (B: being swallowed by a great fish) and his later deliverance (B`: the fish deposits him on dry land). In between, Jonah’s song of thanksgiving first portrays in graphic poetic detail his progressive descent into the depths of the sea—moving farther and farther away from Yahweh—and then lauds his divinely initiated “resurrection” from “the pit” (C`; cf. “Sheol,” C). Verse 4 constitutes the nucleus of the introversion, expressing in emphatic direct (included) speech the essential content of v. 2 on the one hand and v. 7 on the other (the midpoint of the entire book in terms of word count occurs in the immediately preceding bicolon, v. 3b). On one side of the poetic structural break (F) Jonah lamentshis removal from Yahweh’s benevolent presence. On the other side (F`) he confidently looks forward to entering that same presence again through prayer directed to the “holy temple” of Yahweh—its earthly locus (v. 4b) as well as its heavenly epitome (v. 7b).

Verses 8–9 express Jonah’s joyous reaction to his miraculous rescue and bring his hymn to an end in a triumphant shout of victory: “Salvation belongs to [i.e. is the prerogative of] the Lord [alone]!”—which is the song’s thematic and emotive peak. At first glance this final segment (A`) does not appear to fit the overall structural pattern—that is, not until one observes the artful manner whereby it is linked, both lexically and semantically, with the closing narrative portion of chap. 1 (A; 1:16). Jonah’s ethnocentric prejudice [Note—these are E. Wendland’s views, not mine] seems to shine through even his pious prayer as he cursorily dismisses “those who cling to worthless idols,” contrasting their religious behavior with his own righteous acts of “sacrifice” and “vows.” His ritualized words recall, with considerable irony, the reverent response of the heathen seamen as they fearfully witnessed Yahweh’s impressive dealing with his unwilling messenger. So thematically important is this contrast that thestructural pattern is reversed at the end in order to draw attention to it—i.e. A` and B` (cf. A and B). In addition, this third scene of the drama is effectively tied into the second by means of the correspondence between 2:8–9 and 1:16, a masterful compositional interlocking device. The final, soteriological line of the song is followed by the subtly satiric anticlimax: Jonah’s “salvation” was effected by an ignominious expectoration.

2) The Modified Analysis

The passage is 123 words long, and is divided into two sections each of 61 words, with the key transitional word “Yet!” which also divides the 11 words of v.5 into two equal halves:

I said, “I have been banished from Your sight, (5 words)

YET (1 word)

“I will look again towards Your holy temple.” (5 words)

Using this division as a starting point, I have attempted to work outwards—both forwards and backwards—trying to identify chiastic patterns. The result of this is given on the next page, and below are some notes on the structure.

Notes on the structural analysis (working from the middle outwards!)

1) The centre of the passage by word count is also the centre of D, the thematic centre, by word count.

However, the word count distribution between the subsections A,B,C,C`,B`,A` does not appear to follow a clear pattern, at least I cannot discern one. The arrangement is not symmetrical. A’ is slightly longer than A because of two two word phrases in A` that do not seem to correspond to words in A, but B and C by contrast are both slightly longer than B` and C`.

2) In Da) it is the sight of Yahweh to which reference is made, but in Da`) it is Jonah who is the one who looks.

Brief discussion of the “holy temple”:

The holy temple in Da`) is presumably the Jerusalem temple, but God’s heavenly temple (of which the earthly Tabernacle was a type or copy) could also be in view here. God chose the Jerusalem temple as the place where His Name would dwell (Deut. 12:11, 1 Ki. 5:5 etc.), but Solomon pointed out at the dedication of the temple that even the heaven of heavens could not contain God—much less the earthly temple (1 Ki. 8:27). There is therefore quite a lot of OT data which was available to Jonah and which presumably guided his choice of words here. God is present everywhere, but there is also a special presence which is shown in the spatial distribution of holiness radiating outwards from above the mercy seat of the temple to the rest of the holy of holies, to the rest of the temple, to Jerusalem, to the land of Israel then to the nations. In the NT, God is “especially” present in the Church, and Jesus describes Himself in John’s Gospel as the Son of Man who is in heaven—so both on earth and in heaven at the same time. (Systemic theology textbooks have much to say about this important topic—and they will say it much better than me!)

End of brief discussion

3) There is a chiastic structure (not shown in the diagram) which goes from Da`) to B`p). In this structure, Da`) and B’p) both refer to “Your holy temple”. C`a) and C`b) both refer to Jonah’s “soul”. I think that “the deep” in C`c) probably corresponds to “the pit” in Y’r) and “my head” in C`b`) to “my life” in Y’r).

This leaves the two clauses of B`X) as the central component of this chiasm. (Sorry about the awkward notation here!)

4) There are a couple of “reciprocal” aspects to D: 1) Jonah has been banished from Yahweh’s sight, but he will look towards Yahweh’s holy temple. 2) there is an interplay between nouns and verbs, and between first person (Jonah) and second person (Yahweh) pronouns.

The structure is thus chiastic with respect to “seeing”:

a) I have been banished

b) from your sight

yet

b`) I will look

a`) towards your holy temple

But, as regards grammar, it has a “panel” (parallel) structure

a) I (1st person) have been banished (verb)

b) from (preposition) your (second person) sight (noun)

yet

a`) I (1st person) will look (verb)

b`) towards (preposition) your (second person) holy temple (noun)

Brief comment about Jonah’s claim regarding banishment

In Jonah 1:3, we are told that Jonah has fled from the face or presence of Yahweh, but we are not really given sufficient information at that point in the narrative to know why this is, though doubtless we are expected to construct one or more hypotheses! This withholding of information is obviously deliberate, and it is only later, at two further points in the narrative where we are given additional information (though never what one could call a full and definitive explanation!)We are provided with further information on this score in Jonah 2:4 and Jonah 4:2. In 4:2 Jonah tells Yahweh that is was because he, Jonah, anticipated Nineveh’s repentance and Yahweh’s “repentance” from destroying the city that he originally fled! But in 2:4 we have the (equally surprising!) claim by Jonah that he considered himself banished from Yahweh’s sight. If we, as readers accept this claim at face value (as I do), then we are presented, in Jonah’s flight/banishment with a composite action involving both divine sovereignty and human responsibility: Jonah flees from Yahweh’s face and is banished from Yahweh’s eyes.

There is much more to be said about this, as it is commonly held by some commentators that Jonah is at this point in his “psalm” being somewhat disingenuous—trying perhaps to “shift the blame” onto God for his own actions—a view with which I disagree. Whilst I am complaining, it is, furthermore, sometimes

suggested by commentators that Jonah “thought he could run away from God”, or that he “mistakenly believed that God was localised to Israel”. Such views regarding Jonah as he is portrayed in the book of Jonah are, I believe, patent nonsense! Jonah, by contrast has, it seems to me a thorough grasp of every part of the Old Testament up to that point in salvation history, which is, partly, what makes him a true prophet, and which qualifies him to be the ideal person, chosen by Yahweh Himself, to introduce, through the theological drama described in the book, the new work that Yahweh is about to accomplish in the world. I hope to develop both these points in future articles.

End of brief comment

5) Moving on to C and C`, both sub-sections have three parts. The respective central parts (labelled c) are “the current surrounded me” and “the deep surrounded me” respectively. The verb “surrounded” (ye·so·ve·ve·ni from the verb סָבַב ,sabab) is exactly the same in both instances.

) Here are some further connections between C and C`

i) C is purely chiastic, C` combines chiastic and panel elements.

ii) Yahweh is “active” in C—He “throws” Jonah and His breakers and His waves pass over Jonah—whereas it is impersonal elements that act in C`

iii) Aside from the previously mentioned central elements Cc) and C`c), “aquatic elements” are located in the “b” sections of C, but in the “a” sections of C`. In C, there are four of them – depths, heart of the waters, breakers and waves, whereas in C` there are only two—waters and seaweed. This probably accounts for the two word discrepancy (11 words as opposed to 9 words) in the respective word counts of C and C`

iv) There are six verbs, and each of the six associated clauses has me (or my) in its predicate.

7) The “B” sections, B and B` are most interesting. They each consist of two sub-sections arranged in parallel, and I have labelled these X, Y and X`, Y` respectively. Let us look at the X and X` subsections first:

It might have seemed more natural to divide B`X` into its two more equal sections as follows:

However, the arrangement used in the main diagram is, I think preferable for the following reason: both BX) and B`X`) actually comprise a single clause (the verb “was” in B`X`) being implied rather than stated in the Hebrew—hence it is put in brackets, in the above, and in italics in the KJV). Thus, in BX) we have a single spatial reference (the belly of the fish) followed by two temporal references—three days and three nights, whereas in B`X`) we have two spatial references (the bases of the mountain and the barred earth) followed by a single temporal reference—forever.

It is interesting that the proposed analysis of the Jonah 1:16-2:10 here makes a clear connection between Jonah’s three days and three nights in the belly of the fish and the earth with its bars at the bases of the mountains. This is the very connection that Jesus makes in Matthew 12:40:

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (ESV)

The word “heart” does not occur in this section of our passage, but interestingly, the related, but contrasting expression, “the heart of the seas” is found in our passage, in section C) (i.e. Jon. 2:3) This expression seems to have a primary reference to Jonah’s experience in the water itself, rather than in the fish. Indeed, C and C` are the only sections in our entire passage that contain “watery” references. By contrast, B, which includes the reference to Jonah being in the belly of the fish, and B` contain only land references—earth, mountains, pit and Sheol. The fish thus seems to be more associated with the land than the sea, and indeed, in v. 10 it vomits Jonah not into the sea, but onto dry land.

I think that the language here is linked to the account of creation, and the mental picture is of the “bars” of earth and the roots of the mountains, i.e. land, being found in the depths of the sea (and the belly of the great fish is also a little outpost of the land in the depths of the sea), but going to this land below the sea represents a sort of dying—symbolically at any rate - just as coming up again through the water represents resurrection. We will see this in the references to the pit and Sheol when we consider BY) and B`Y`):

7) BY) and B`Y`) are fairly straightforward. They each consist of three pairs of expressions and the arrangement is basically chiastic. In BY) the expressions are all clauses so there are six verbs altogether, but in B`Y`), there are only 4 verbs. Perhaps significantly, BY) also has a word count that is 2 words greater than B`Y`).

There is also a slight parallel arrangement—for example, Yahweh is mentioned by name twice in BY) and in B`Y`) in the first two subsections of each, but not in the third subsection of each.

The verb prayed and the noun prayer correspond chiastically, (the verb occurring from the “low point” of the belly of the fish, but the noun being to Yahweh’s holy temple—the highest point. Likewise, distress (noun) and fainted (verb) correspond chiastically, as do pit and Sheol.

Both BY) and B`Y`) also have chiastic elements within themselves. For example, BY) speaks of the stomach of the fish and the belly of Sheol in chiastically corresponding locations, and in B`Y`) both Jonah’s life and his prayer have chiastically located “upwards” movements.

8) Finally, A and A` are also both divided into two sub-sections which correspond in parallel, rather than chiastically. AN) and A`N) are not only located chiastically, but they also describe Jonah entering and leaving the great fish respectively. Also God “appointing” and God “commanding” correspond etc. A`N`) has one additional feature—it mentions the location to which Jonah was vomited, “onto the dry land”, (2 words) and there is nothing in AM) to which this chiastically corresponds as far as I can see.

AM) and A`M) basically describe the faithful response to deliverance from the sea by the sailors and Jonah. However, whilst AMa) describes the sailors’ correct fear of Yahweh in positive terms, A`Ma) describes an incorrect, negative response which Jonah eschews (hence it is followed by the word “but I . . ”). The force of the contrast is between fear of Yahweh and regard for idols.

These responses are followed by corresponding references to sacrifices and vows, and finally, A`M) has the additional final triumphant declaration, “Salvation belongs to Yahweh!” (2 words) - which so far as I can see does not

correspond to anything in AM). We can perhaps see this phrase, “salvation belongs to Yahweh) as a chiastic contrast to the idolatry and loss of faithfulness (the Hebrew word for faithfulness here is that lovely word chesed—loving-kindness). Or alternatively we can see the two two-word phrases “salvation belongs to Yahweh” and “onto the dry land” as chiastically encompassing Jonah’s deliverance, his “salvation” which is described using the words, ”And Yahweh spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah . .” .

Doubtless there is much, much, more to be said about the structure of this passage, but I will finish here, and look forward to your help and comments as always.

In the next article, I hope to look at Jonah 1:3-10, which divides both by structure and word count into two sections, verses 3-6 and verses 7-10.

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