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Jonah 1:1-3 Jonah 1:1-A Message From Jonah 1:1-3 Jonah 1:1-A Message From The Lord Is Communicated To Jonah Jonah 1:1 records that a message from the Lord was communicated to the prophet Jonah. The content of the message is revealed in Jonah 1:2. Jonah 1:1, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’” The book of Jonah in the original Hebrew text begins with the conjunction waw wa), which is prefixed to the qal masculine singular third person active) ( וָ ) ”. haw-yaw), “ came) ( הָיָה ) prefixed (imperfect) sequential form of the verb hayah Hebrew narratives usually are introduced by this verb form without a grammatical subject, which can be translated “now it happened” or “now it came to pass.” It is much like the English “once there was” or “once upon a time.” This Hebrew construction that begins the book of Jonah also begins other historical books in the Hebrew canon such as Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, Ruth and Esther. Narratives in other prophetic books of the Old Testament are often introduced by this construction but with Jonah, it actually introduces an entire narrative about Jonah. It is not unusual for the first sentence of the book of Jonah to begin with a waw since the vast majority of all independent clauses in Hebrew narrative to do so. Many translations translate waw here in Jonah 1:1 in an introductory sense meaning “now” (ESV, NRSV, RSV, AMP, KJV, NKJV, ASV, AV). We will do the same. The verb hayah in Jonah 1:1 is used to demonstrate that the message Jonah communicated to the Ninevites originated from the Lord. The context indicates that we can translate it “communicated” since the Lord is doing just that in that the Lord is communicating to Jonah the message He wants delivered to the Ninevites. This is a qal impersonal construction involving an experience describing a circumstance in the life of Jonah. This is a qal stative describing a circumstance in the life of Jonah. The imperfect tense of the verb expresses an event that took place in the past, which continued for a period of time when God commissioned Jonah to go to the Ninevites. We will translate hayah , “ was communicated .” wayhî) ( וַיְהִי רְּ בַר־יְהוָה ) ”…The formula “ Now the word of the Lord came to dĕbar yhwh ʾel ) appears frequently in the Old Testament, especially in Jeremiah and Ezekiel where it describes a message from the Lord being delivered to a prophet of Israel (Jeremiah 1:4, 11, 13, 16:1; Ezek. 3:16; 6:1; 7:1). This expression does not open any other Old Testament book, only Jonah. It appears many times opening an episode in a larger book (1 Samuel 15:10; 1 Kings 6:11; 16:1; 21:17, 2010 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 1 28; 2 Chronicles 11:2; Isaiah 38:4; Jeremiah 29:30; 32:26; 33:19, 23; 34:12; 35:12; 37:6; Zechariah 7:8). The expression “ the word of the Lord came to Jonah ” emphasizes with the reader that Jonah received divine authority to proclaim a message of judgment for the city of Nineveh. appears 250 times in the Old Testament and ( רְּ בַר־יְהוָה ) ” The word of the Lord“ is composed of the masculine singular form of the common noun in the construct daw-bawr), “ the word of ” and the masculine singular proper) ( דָּבָר ) state debar ”. yeh-ho-vaw), “ the Lord) ( יהוה ) noun Yahweh It is used the majority of the time in the Old Testament to refer to a Word spoken by Yahweh to a prophet as a technical expression for the prophetic word of revelation and is the formula that gives the prophetic books of the Old Testament their distinctiveness. This expression in the Old Testament also is an earmark of inspiration indicating that what the prophet is communicating to people in writing is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is a revelation of God’s will. 2 Peter 1:20, “Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, 21 for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (NET Bible) Therefore, we can see that the book of Jonah does not begin with a title as most of the prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos and Obadiah but rather it begins with God’s self-revelation to Jonah. It emphasizes that Jonah was commissioned by the Lord to go to the Ninevites and speak a message of judgment against the city of Nineveh. In Jonah 1:1, the noun debar means “message” referring to what Yahweh said to the prophet Jonah. The content of this message is related in verse 2. The exact manner in which Jonah received this message is not given. God chose to speak to His prophets in various ways whether through dreams or direct communication or through a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:9-13) or through a whirlwind (Job 38) or earthquake. This noun debar is the subject of the verb hayah indicating that the message from the Lord as the subject is performing the action of being communicated to Jonah. The proper noun Yahweh , “Lord ” is the personal name of God emphasizing that He is the redeemer of mankind and is used in His relationship to His covenants or contracts with men whereas Elohim emphasizes the transcendent character of God. So the term Yahweh , “ Lord ” is used alone in Jonah 1:1 and not Elohim , “ God ” or Yahweh Elohim , “ Lord God .” This is significant since the term Yahweh , “Lord ” is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with 2010 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 2 man’s salvation and emphasizing the personal relationship that Jonah had with the Lord and the personal attention and revelation that Jonah was receiving from God. This is emphasizing the “immanency” of God meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men whereas Elohim , “ God ” emphasizes the transcendent character of God. Because the ancient Hebrews wrote only consonants, not vowels, the pronunciation of words and names was passed down by the parents to the children. Throughout Old Testament times people used the name Yahweh freely. When the rabbis began to add their traditions about 300 B.C. they noted that the Third Commandment forbids misusing the name of Yahweh (Ex. 20:7). Therefore, they decided it was too holy to pronounce so they quit pronouncing the name. Whenever they came to the name ( YHWH ), sometimes called the Sacred Tetragrammaton) in Scripture, they read ‘ adhon , “ Lord .” In time, everyone forgot how to pronounce the name. In the sixth and seventh centuries after Christ, Jewish scholars of tradition (Masoretes) added vowel marks to the Hebrew Bibles to help them remember the traditional pronunciation. Wherever they came to YHWH , they put vowel marks to remind them to read ‘adhon , “ Lord ” unless the verse had ‘ adhon YHWH . Then they put vowel marks to remind them to read ` elohim , “ God .” Later, some European scholars wrote JHVH instead of YHWH . Then about 1220 A.D. some of them took the vowels for “Lord ” (modified by Hebrew grammatical rules) and put them with JHVH to come up with Jehovah , which is not a real name, for it has the consonants of a proper name and the vowels of a title. Therefore, in Jonah 1:1, we have the term Yahweh , “ Lord ” employed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in order to emphasize God’s concern for the human race and that He intervenes in the affairs of men on planet earth. This word emphasizes where the message to Jonah “originates from.” al), “ to ,” whose object is) ( אַל ) To Jonah ” is composed of the preposition al“ ”. yo-naw), “ Jonah) ( יוֹנָה ) the masculine singular form of the proper noun yownah means “dove.” Jonah does not live up to ( יוֹנָה ) The Hebrew proper name yônâ his name since with respect to Nineveh, he was a “hawk” in that he wanted God to make war against Nineveh and not peace. The prophet’s home was in Gath-hepher, which is in Zebulun (Joshua 19:13) situated 2.5 miles northeast of Nazareth in Galilee (Note the error of the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 7:52). He was a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel, whose predecessors were Elijah and Elisha. Hosea and Amos would likely have been Jonah’s contemporaries. Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet to attempt to go AWOL and run from performing his duty as a prophet of God. He was one of four Old Testament prophets whose ministries were referred to by the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Mt. 12:41; 2010 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 3 Lk. 11:32). The others were Elijah (Mt. 17:11-12), Elisha (Lk. 4:27) and Isaiah (Mt. 15:7). His ministry had some parallels to his immediate predecessors, Elijah (1 K. 17- 19; 21; 2 K. 1-2) and Elisha (2 K. 2-9; 13) who ministered to Israel and also were called to Gentile missions in Phoenicia and Aram. He was a contemporary of both Amos and Hosea who were sent by the Lord to the nation of Israel to warn them of the impending fifth cycle of discipline upon the northern kingdom of Israel.
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