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pelled to bear His punishment; and they shall be as though they had not been, exterminated by the Lord's judgment. All enemies of the Lord and of His holy Church will eventually feel the heavy hand of His wrath on account of their hostility against that which He has ordained.

THE DELIVERANCE OF GOD'S PEOPLE. — V. 17. But upon Mount Zion, in the midst of the Lord's Church, shall be deliverance, the congregation of such as are saved from the judgment of destruction; and there shall be holiness, that is, Mount Zion would be a sanctuary, no longer to be desecrated by the enemies; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions, people from all the nations of the world being added to the Lord's congregation. V. 18. And the house of Jacob, Judah, as representative of the Church of God in the Old Testament, shall be a fire, through the burning zeal of God which lives in His believers, and the house of Joseph, the northern tribes in their believing representatives, a flame, and the house of Esau, the nation of Edom as type of all enemies of the Lord, for stubble, and they shall kindle in them and devour them, for all the enemies of the Lord's Church will eventually be destroyed; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it, and His Word is certain to be fulfilled in every instance. V. 19. And they of the South, the members of the tribe of Judah, shall possess the mount of Esau, according to the prophecy which states

that the Messiah would dwell in the midst of His enemies, and they of the plain, the Lord's people of the southwestern plains, the Philistines, another tribe and country hostile to the Lord; and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, the territory of the northern kingdom, and the fields of Samaria; and Benjamin shall possess Gilead, the country east of Jordan. V. 20. And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, the very ones who had suffered on account of the hostility of the enemies, shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath, or Sarepta, a city in the extreme northern portion of the country, within the boundaries of Phenicia; and the captivity of Jerusalem, the captives from the capital, which is in Sepharad, either Sardis or Sparta, shall possess the cities of the South, the names being given only as representative of nations near by. V. 21. And saviors, men who would bring the deliverance of the Lord, shall come up on Mount Zion, appearing in the Church of the Lord as His messengers, to judge the mount of Esau, as typical of the entire heathen world; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's; for Jehovah's Kingdom of Grace will be established throughout the world. The entire paragraph evidently sets forth the marvelous deliverance of the people of the Lord from the oppression of all their enemies and their preservation in the Church of the Messiah, which, from being the Church Militant here in time, will merge into the Church Triumphant in eternity.

The prophet Jonah ("dove"), the son of Amittai, was undoubtedly identical with the man who is called a prophet in 2 Kings 14, 25. The village of Gath-hepher in Galilee, in the tribe of Zebulun, was his home town, which makes it probable that he lived under Jeroboam II of Israel and prophesied at about the end of the ninth century or at the beginning of the eighth century before Christ. The period in which he lived was approximately that of the prophets Amos and Hosea in the northern kingdom and of Isaiah and Micah in the southern kingdom. As he had announced to King Jeroboam the restoration of the ancient boundaries of the kingdom, whereby the glory and majesty of Israel were once more established, so he was here sent to Nineveh as a special messenger of the Lord in order to preach the need of repentance to this wicked Assyrian metropolis.

The Book of Jonah, obviously a historical account of the chief events connected with the sending of Jonah to Nineveh, restricts itself to this one narrative. It abounds in miraculous circumstances, such as that of the great fish in whose stomach the life of the prophet was preserved, of the terrible storm sent by God, which died down as soon as the prophet had been delivered to the waves, of the remarkable growth of the gourd planted by Jonah, and other extraordinary features. Unbelievers and scoffers have tried, for this reason, to make the book the target of their mockery. But all their attacks are found to be idle talk if we remember that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself referred to the Book of Jonah as a record of facts, even using the experience of Jonah as a type and prophecy of His own burial and resurrection.

The purpose of the book is to show that the true God is not the God of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles as well, that God will have all men, including the Gentiles, to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. The book treats, in chronological order, the call of Jonah, his flight, his being preserved in the stomach

of the sea-monster and his deliverance, his preaching to the Ninevites and its effect, the prophet's consequent great displeasure and complaint, the Lord's loving correction.1)

1) Cp. Fuerbringer, Einleitung, 85. 86; Concordia Bible Class, June, 1919, 85. 86.

Jonah's Attempt to Evade the Call

of the Lord.

JONAH'S COMMISSION AND FLIGHT. V. 1. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, in a vision or by a direct revelation, saying, v. 2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, by preaching a call to repentance; for their wickedness is come up before Me, as had that of Sodom and Gomorrah hundreds of years before. Cp. Gen. 18, 20. The name Nineveh was applied to a complex of four ancient cities, including Nineveh proper, which lay between the Tigris River and a low range of hills, about 500 miles northeast of Jerusalem. The entire length of the compound city was about twenty-five miles, while its breadth was fifteen. At that time it had more than half a million inhabitants and was the capital and metropolis of the entire heathen world. V. 3. But Jonah, instead of showing the proper obedience to the Lord, rose up to flee unto Tarshish, Tartessus in Spain, one of the westernmost cities of the ancient world and always considered as lying on the very boundary of the earth's inhabited area, from the presence of the Lord, from before the face of the Lord, who was thought of as having His habitation in the Temple at Jerusalem, and went down to Joppa, the harbor of Jerusalem on the Mediterranean Sea. And he found a ship going to Tarshish, for there was a lively commercial intercourse with the western metropolis even at that time on account of its trade in metals and fine products of the soil; so he paid the fare thereof, he engaged passage, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, thus deliberately denying his services to Jehovah, the King of Israel, chiefly because the idea of preaching repentance to a heathen nation was repugnant to him, since he feared that the Lord might show the Gentiles mercy. V. 4. But the Lord, whose presence was by no means confined to the 'Land of Promise, sent out a great wind into the sea, a very severe storm, which caused the billows to rise in dangerous mountains; and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken, it was on the point of foundering. V. 5. Then the mariners, the sailors on the boat, were afraid and

cried every man unto his god, for the seamen were from various countries and worshiped various gods, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship, the freight which she was carrying, into the sea to lighten it of them, so that she would ride higher in the water and no longer be in danger of foundering. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, into its cabin, or hold; and he lay and was fast asleep, thinking himself secure from all danger. V. 6. So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Why should he withdraw at the time of this great peril? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not, by lending them His assistance and rescuing them from the impending destruction. V. 7. And they said every one to his fellow, after Jonah had obeyed the call of the captain, Come and let us cast lots, a common method of determining the guilt of men at that time, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us, who was to blame for the present condition of affairs. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah, the Lord Himself directing this method of determining the guilty one. V. 8. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us, who and what was responsible for this condition of affairs. What is thine occupation? his business, which might have been of a nature to arouse the wrath of God. And whence comest thou, from what nation and people? What is thy country? And of what people art thou? The questions are shouted in a confused mass, as always under the stress of a great emotion. V. 9. And he said unto them, in an open confession of his guilt, I am an Hebrew, the usual name applied to the people of Israel by the surrounding nations; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, worshiping Him alone, which hath made the sea and the dry land, the one Creator of the world and all it contained. V. 10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, filled with terror at the scope of this confession, which showed them that they were, although unwittingly, assisting Jonah in his effort to escape the Lord, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? a cry of horror and fear more than a question, for the God of the Hebrews was known as a

powerful Deity. For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them, this statement having been included in the confession which he made before them. Even unbelievers quake at any evidence of the wrath of God, much as they otherwise scoff at those who worship Him.

JONAH AND THE SEA-MONSTER.-V. 11. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto us? What would Jonah himself suggest or advise in order to turn away the wrath of God from those who were not implicated in his guilt? For the sea wrought, continued to rage, and was tempestuous, still rising in angry billows. V. 12. And he said unto them, showing the right spirit in offering himself up as a sacrifice in their behalf, Take me up and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you, be quieted down; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. V. 13. Nevertheless the men, not desiring to carry out the prophet's suggestion, rowed hard to bring it to the land, that is, they tried everything they knew in the line of seamanship in order to break through the billows which hemmed in the ship; but they could not, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them, so that they could make no headway against the surging waves. V. 14. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, in this case addressing Jeho

vah, the true God, and said, We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee, let us not perish for this man's life, be held accountable for the fact that they would now deliver him to what appeared to them a certain death, and lay not upon us innocent blood, by imputing it to them, since Jonah had not harmed them in any manner; for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee, He had determined it, the lot, as directed by Him, made the execution necessary. V. 15. So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased from her raging, it stood still and no longer rose in such tremendous billows. V. 16. Then the men, seeing in this sudden change of the weather the almighty hand of God, feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made Vows, as men will under the stress of such a sudden fear and emotion, although there is no real change of heart in them. V. 17. Now, the Lord had prepared a great fish, not a whale, but a special sea-monster, to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, being alive and conscious through the power of the Lord, whose plans called for a further use of this prophet. In the entire story there are many elements of the miraculous, but not a line which makes the narrative appear unreasonable. It is for us to believe what the Lord has here recorded.

Jonah's Prayer of Thanksgiving and Praise.

The words, as here recorded, are not a prayer for deliverance, but a thanksgiving to the Lord for the deliverance already effected. From this we see, as Luther also remarks, that the thoughts which Jonah had during his confinement in the belly of the sea-monster were afterwards edited by him to form the powerful hymn of worship which we here have before us. V. 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, out of the fish's belly, these thoughts occurring to him again and again during his awful experience, v. 2. and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction, out of the midst of the distress which he was suffering, unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell, literally, "out of the womb of sheol," the realm of death, cried I, and Thou heardest my voice, delivering him from what seemed to be certain destruction, cp. Ps. 18, 6; 30, 4. V. 3. For Thou hadst cast me into the deep, the sailors on the ship being but the executors of the punishment placed upon him by the Lord, in the midst of the seas, literally, "into the heart of the oceans"; and the floods compassed me about, namely, as he sank to the

bottom; all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me. Cp. Ps. 42, 8. V. 4. Then I said, I am cast out of Thy sight, cut off from the gracious experience of God's favor; yet I will look again toward Thy holy Temple, certain that he would again be permitted to worship with the Lord's people. V. 5. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul, so that he was ready to despair of his life, cp. Ps. 18, 5; 69, 2; the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head, apparently, enclosing him so that he could not escape.

V. 6.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, the very depths of the ocean abyss, where the mountains have their foundations; the earth with her bars, the walls of the sea-basin, was about me forever; yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, from the pit which threatened to be his grave, O Lord, my God. V. 7. When my soul fainted within me, when he was at the point of yielding to the night of death, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto Thee, like a petitioner presenting his appeal in person, into Thine holy Temple, where the Lord had promised to hear those who put their trust in Him. V. 8. They that

observe lying vanities, placing their trust in idols and in false worship, forsake their own mercy, deliberately abandon their one hope of deliverance, namely, through the loving-kindness and tender mercies of Jehovah. V. 9. But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving, loudly proclaiming his gratitude for mercies received, Ps. 42, 5; I will pay that that I have vowed. Cp. Ps. 50, 14. 23. Salvation is of the Lord, it belongs to Jehovah, it is in His power, He

alone can grant deliverance from all evil. V. 10. And the Lord, who heard the repentant prayer of His servant, spake unto the fish, giving it a definite command, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land, very likely on the coast of Palestine. As far as the subject-matter of the story is concerned, it will be well to remember that one of the ancient teachers of the Church rightly calls all subtle inquiries concerning these things a foolish officiousness.

Jonah's Message to the Ninevites and Its Results.

a

The disobedient prophet had received severe lesson at the hand of God, but he now profited by this lesson and was ready to undertake the commission which had originally been issued to him. V. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, v. 2. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, the Assyrian capital and metropolis, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee, loudly proclaiming the message which the Lord would reveal to him in due time, yielding himself in ready obedience to whatever the Lord may see fit to have him speak. V. 3. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord, in unquestioning obedience. Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city, literally, "a great city to God," regarded by Him as such, of three days' journey, that is, it took three days to make the round of its main sections, if a person passed through all the chief market-places. V. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, he commenced his trip through the various centers comprising the larger city, preaching wherever he found a suitable place and a fitting opportunity; and he cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, this threat being the climax of his proclamation, of his call to repentance. V. 5. So the people of Nineveh believed God, they accepted His word, they were filled with a wholesome fear, and proclaimed a fast, as an outward evidence of their sorrow, and put on sackcloth, the garment of mourning, from the greatest of them even to the least of them, old and young, all without exception. V. 6. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, into the neighborhood of whose palace the prophet had very likely progressed in his first day's journey, and he arose from his throne, symbol of his earthly power, and

he laid his robe from him, his royal mantle, and covered him with sackcloth, also adopting the mourning-dress, and sat in ashes, all signs of sorrow and repentance. Cp. Job 2, 8; Ezek. 27, 30. V. 7. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, the royal heralds being dispatched in accordance with the custom of making edicts of this kind known, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything, the domestic animals being included in this order, as sufferers with the people; let them not feed nor drink water, v. 8. but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, clothed in mourning, and cry mightily unto God, the very lowing of the cattle and the bleating of the sheep in their distress being considered appeals for mercy; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, from his sinful habits, and from the violence that is in their hands. Cp. Is. 59, 6. V. 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, the possibility of His doing so being suggested by His interest in sending a prophet to warn them, and turn away from His fierce anger that we perish not? It was a true repentance on the part of the Ninevites and is so cited by Christ in reproof of those who, with much greater light and privileges, did not repent, Matt. 12, 41; Luke 11, 32, even if its effects were not lasting. V. 10. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, from the security of their open transgressions of the Lord's will; and God repented of the evil that He had said that he would do unto them; and He did it not, letting His mercy guide His actions rather than a stern and immutable justice. As God spared Nineveh when its inhabitants turned to Him in repentance, so He is ready to show mercy to all those who lay aside their obstinate impenitence and plead with Him for forgiveness.

Popular Commentary, Old Test., II.

43

Jonah's Displeasure and the Lord's

Reproof.

That Jonah was easily swayed by his emotions is evident from the entire story of his book, but appears particularly from the last chapter. At the same time, the Lord's patience in dealing with His erring children is brought out in a most remarkable manner. V. 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, namely, that the Lord did not carry out His threat of punishment upon the people of Nineveh, and he was very angry, provoked, filled with grief and vexation. V. 2. And he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray Thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, the argument which he had used within himself, when I was yet in my country? when he first received the commission to go to Nineveh. Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, that is, he anticipated the fruitlessness of his errand, the fact that his prediction against Nineveh was not fulfilled; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil. Cp. Ex. 34, 6. The words were spoken out of a very decided ill humor, because Jonah, as he thought, had been sent to deliver a message which the Lord intended to revoke, and which so readily produced repentance. It was a sad contradiction between a peevish mood and the better knowledge of his head and heart. V. 3. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. "Jonah's impatience of life under disappointed hopes of Israel's reformation through the destruction of Nineveh is like that of Elijah at his plan for reforming Israel, 1 Kings 18, failing through Jezebel. Cp. 1 Kings 19, 4." V. 4. Then said the Lord, in a preliminary, gentle reproof, Doest thou well to be angry? Was there any justification for Jonah's attitude? V. 5. So Jonah, still smarting under the displeasure which he felt, went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, choosing a place in its immediate neighborhood, and there made him a booth, a temporary hut of branches and leaves, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city, whether the original judgment would not, after all, be carried out upon it; for the forty days named in his message had not yet elapsed. V. 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, the castor-oil plant, commonly called palm-crist, and made it to come up over Jonah, the plant growing up very rapidly,

with its large leaves quickly casting a pleasant coolness, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief, to cause his peevishness to disappear and thus to afford him some relief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd, he enjoyed the shadow offered by the green plant. V. 7. But God, intending to teach Jonah a further lesson, prepared a worm, appointing it to that end, when the morning rose the next day, at the breaking of the dawn, and it smote the gourd that it withered, for it is a peculiarity of the castor-oil plant that it fades readily when injured. V. 8. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, blowing with a sultry heat; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, overcome with the heat, and wished in himself to die, the reaction once more being rapid and furious, and said, It is better for me to die than to live, namely, in such circumstances, with everything combining to make life unpleasant. V. 9. And God, taking this opportunity to drive home His lesson, said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, with a sudden flare of bitterness, I do well to be angry, even unto death. V. 10. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, which had cost him no toil to rear, neither madest it grow, Jonah not being obliged so much as to water it; which came up in a night and perished in a night, being, as the Hebrew has it, the son of a night, of only a night's duration; 11. and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein there are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, that is, 120,000 infants, who could not be accused of any par ticular wrong-doing, and also much cattle? This argument of Jehovah, in exposing the selfishness of the prophet, was at the same time sufficient to silence him, as he stood rebuked before this exhibit of God's mercy. Moreover, the tidings which Jonah was able to bring back to his countrymen was a most emphatic call to repentance, as Jesus brings out in His reference to the repentance of the Ninevites. Israel failed to learn the lesson and therefore was cast out of its land. All the more is it necessary for us to consider the sign of the prophet Jonah and to cling to the confession of Him who could say of Himself, "Behold, here is more than Jonah!"

V.