OBA 17 FF
Se 7 ‘¢ foal come up; who are the Lord of hofts, and *€ the God of hofts: on mount Zion; which is the ** myftery of the living God: to judge the mount “© of Efau, which is mount Seir.” So Maimonides“, quoting the paflage in Numb. xxiv. 18. Seir alfo fall be a poffeffion for bis enemies, adds, by way of explanation, this is the king Meffiah, of whom itis faid, and faviours fhall come upon mount Zion. The work and bufinefs of thefe faviours will be, to judge the mount of Efau;, to take vengeance on the Edomites, for their ill-ufage of the children of Judah, as the Fewi/> commentators generally interpret it: or rather, as gofpel-minifters are thefe faviours, it exprefies their bufinefs; which as it is to declare that whoever believes in Chrift fhall be faved, fo that whoever does not fhall be damned; and to convince impenitent and unbelieving finners of their fin and danger, and their need of Chrift, judging and condemning thofe that remain fo: and moreover, as E/au and Edom fignify antichrift, the fenfe is, that they fhall publifh and proclaim the judgment of God upon antichrift, declare it to be rear, yea to be done; and fhall exprefs their approbation of the juftice of God in it, and. fhall call upon the faints to rejoice at it, Rev. xiv. 6, 7, 8, 9. and xvi. 5, 6. and xviii. 1, 20. yea, thefe faviours may include the chriftian princes, that fhall pour out the vials of God’s wrath upon the antichriftian ftates. dud the kingdom Jhall be the Lord’s; the Lord Chrift’s, who is the one Je~ hovah with the Father and Spirit; meaning not the government of the world, to which he has a natural right as Creator, and which is generally afcribed to Jehovah the Father; nor the government of the church in this prefent ftate, which is Chrift’s already, and ever was: but the government of it in the latter day, when he will take to himfelf his great power and reign; when his kingdom will be more vifible, fpiritual, glorious, and extenfive; when the kingdoms of this world will become his, the Pagan, Papal, and Mabometan kingdoms, even all the kingdoms and nations of the earth; he’ll be king over all the earth; there will be but one Lord and King, and whofe kingdom is an everlafting one; it fhall never come into. other hands; this will continue till the perfonal reign takes place, -and that will iffue in the ultimate glory; fee Rev. xi. 15, 17. and xv, 3, 4. Zech. xiv. 9. Pf. lxxii. 8, 9, 10.
a HIS book in the Hebrew copies is called Sepher Yonah, the book of Fonab; by the Vulgate Latin verfion, the prophecy of Sonab, and in the Syriac verfion, the prophecy of the prophet ‘Fonah. His name fignifies a dove, derived from a root which fignifies to opprefs; becaufe it is a creature liable to oppreffion, and to become the prey of others. Hillerus * derives the word from a root which fignifies to be fair and beautiful, as this creature is. This name is very fuitable to a prophet and minifter of the Lord, who ought to he wife as ferpents, and harmlefs as doves; and who mourn over their own fins, and the fins of others. onab did not always in his conduét anfwer to his name, particularly when he was fo angry at the Lord’s fparing the Ninevites, and fo impatient for the lofs of his gourd. His father’s name was Amittai, as in ch. i. 1. and in 2 Kings xiv. 25. from whence it alfo appears, that he was of Geth-bepher, a town in the tribe of Zebulun, Fofo. xix. 13. and was a part of Galilee, Jf. ix. 1. and fo R. Fochanan in Abendana affirms, that he was of the tribe of Zebulun, and of Getbhepher, which was in that tribe; which confutes that notion of the Pharifees in the times of Chrift, that no prophet came out of Galilee, Fobn vii. 52. The Fews > have a tradition, that his mother was the widow of Sarepta, whofe fon Elijah raifed from the dead, which was this prophet; and who is faid to be the fon of Amittai, that is, truth; becaufe his mother thereby knew and believed that the word of the Lord in the mouth of Elijah was truth, 1 Kings xvii. 23, 24. but his being an Hebrew contradicts this, ch. i. 9. for Sarepta was a city of Sidon, and he muft have been a Sidonian if born of her, and not an Hebrew; but be this as it will, it is certain he was a prophet of the Lord; and this book, which bears his name, and very probably was written by him, its divine authority is confirmed by the teftimony of Chrift, of whom Jonah was a type; fee Matt. xii. 39, 40, 41. and indeed the principal defign of this book is to fet forth in himfelf the type of the death and refur-
HIS chapter gives an account of the call and miffion of Yonah to go to Nineveh, and prophefy there, and the reafon of it, y. 1, 2. his difobedience to it, ¥. 3. God’s refentment of it, by fending a ftorm into the fea where he was, which terrified the mariners, and put the fhip in danger of being loft, ¥. 4, 5. The difcovery of Jonah and his difobedience as the caufe of the tempeft, and how it was made, y. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
P. ‘up, and in which he lived three | rection of Chrift, by his being three days in the whale’s belly, and then delivered from it; and to declare the grace and mercy of God to repenting finners, and to fignify the calling of the Gentiles after the death and refurrection of Chrift; and is a very profitable book to inftruét us about the power and goodnefs of God; the nature of repentance, and the effects of it; the imperfection and infirmities of the beft of men in this life; and the call and miffion of the minifters of the word, and the neceffity of their conformity and attendance to it. Cyprian the martyr was converted from idolatry by hearing this prophecy read and explained by Cecilius. If this prophet was the fon of the widow of Sarepta; or the perfon Elifha fent to anoint Febu, according to the tradition of the Fews *, he was born in the times of Abad, and lived in the reigns of Yoram and Fehu; and according to bifhop Lloyd 4, he prophefied in the latter end of Febu’s reign; where Mr. Whifton « alfo places him, about 860 years before Chrift; or in the beginning of the reign of Feboghaz, when Tfrael was greatly opprefled by Hazael king of Syria, 2 Kings xiii. 22. at which time he might prophefy of the victories and fuccefs of Feroboam the fecond, and grandfon of Feboahax, 2 Kings xiv. 25. and if fo, he is more ancient than J/aiah, Hofea, Amos, Foel and Micah, whofe cotemporary he is generally thought to be. P/eudo-Epipbanius * as he gives a wrong account of the place of the birth of this prophet, fo of the place of his burial; which he makes to be in the land of Saar, and in — the cave of Kenan, the father of Caleb and Otbniel; but it is more likely that he died and was buried at Geth, where he was born; and where, Ferom * fays, his grave was fhewn in his time, — about two miles from Zippore, in the way to Z7-. berias; with which account J/dore* agrees; and fo Benjamin Tudelenfis ‘ {ays, his fepulchre was on a hill near Zippore. Monfieur Thevenot * fays, not far from Nazareth the tomb of Fonas is now to be feen, to which the Turks bear a great refpeet:
The cafting of him into the fea at his own motion, and with his own confent, tho’ with great reluctance in the mariners, y. 11—16. The preparation of a fifh for him, which fwallowed i days and three
¥.1. Now the word of the Lord came ual fama = the fon of Amittai, &c.] Or, and the word of the were ei
Lord was’ not that this is to be confidered as connected with fomething the prophet had on his mind, and in his thoughts when he began to write this book;.or as a part detached from a prophecy not now extant; for it is no unufual thing with the Hebrews to begin books after this manner, efpecially hiftorical ones; of which kind this chiefly is, as the books of Ruth, 1 and 2 Sam. and Ejther; befides, the } Yau is here not copulative, but converfive; doing its office by changing the future tenfe into the paft; which otherwife muit have been rendered, the word of the Lord foall be, or fhall come; which would not only give another, but a wrong fenfe. The word of the Lord often fignifies a prophecy from the Lord; and fo the Yargum renders it, ‘* the word of prophecy “* from the Lord;” and it may be fo interpreted, fince Fenab under a fpirit of prophecy foretold that Nineveh fhould be deftroyed within forty days; tho’ the phrafe here rather fignifies the order and command of the Lord to the prophet-to do as is exprefied in the next verfe, whofe name was Youah the fon of Amittai; of whom fee the argument of the ook. Who his father Amittai was, is not known: if the rule of the Zews would hold good, that when a prophet mentions his own name, and the name of his father, he is a prophet, the fon of a prophet, then Amitiai was one; but this is not to be depehded on. The Syriac verfion calls him, the fon of Mathai, or Matthew; tho’ the Arabians have a notion, that Mathai is his mother’s name; and obferve that none are called after their mothers, but Yonas and Fefus Chrifi: but the right name is Amittai, and fignifies my truth; and to be fons of truth is an agreeable character of the prophets and minifters of the word, who fhould be given to truth, poflefied of it, and publith it: faying, as follows: ° y. 2. Arife, go to Nineveh that great city, &c.] That is, arife from the place where he was, and leave the bufinefs he was about, and prepare for a long journey to the place mentioned, and be as expeditious in it as poffible. Nineveh was the metropolis of the A/yrian empire at this time; it was an ancient city, built by Aur, not by Nimrod; tho’ he by fome is faid to go into Aur or Affyria, and build it, Gew.x. 11. and called it after the name of his fon Ninus; for it fignifies the manfion or palace of Ninus; and by moft profane writers is called Ninus; according to Diodorus Siculus™, and Strabo", it was built by Ninus himfelf in Afpria, in that part of it called by him Adiabena, It is faid to be a great city, as it muft, to be three days journey in compafs, and to have in it fix-fcore thoufand infants, befides men and women, ch. iii. 3. and iv. 11. It is allowed by Strabo ° to be larger than Babylon. Diodorus * fays, that it was in compais four hundred and fourfcore furlongs, which make fixty miles; and had a wall an hundred feet high, and fo broad, that three chariots or carriages might go abreaft upon it; and it had fifteen hundred towers, two hundred feet high. ben Ezra calls it the royal city of Afjria, which is at this day deftroyed; and the wife men of J/rael, in the country of Greece, fay it is called Urtia; but whether fo or no, he knew not: and cry againft it; or prophefy againft it, as the Targum; he was to. lift up his voice, and cry aloud, as he paffed along ee. jin it, that the inhabitants might hear him; and the more to affect them, and to fhew that he was in -earneft, and what he delivered was interefting to them, and of the greateft moment and importance: what he was to cry, preach or publifh, fee ch. I. 2,4: for their wickedne/s is come up before me; it was come to avery great height; it reached to the heavens; it was not only feen and known by the Lord, as all things are; but the cry of it was come up to him; it called aloud for vengeance, for immediate vengeance; the meafure of it being filled up, and the inhabitants ripe for deftruction; it was committed openly and boldly, with much impudence, in the fight of the Lord, as well as againft him; and was no more to be fuffered and connived at: it intends and includes their idolatry, bloodfhed, oppreffion, rapine, fraud and lying; fee ch. iii. 8. and Nahum iii. 1. ¥. 3. But Fonab rofe up to flee unto Tarfoifh from the prefence of the Lord, &c.] He was not obedient to the heavenly vifion; he rofe up, but not to go to Nineveh, but to Tarfbifb, the reverfe of it 3 to the fea, as the Targum, the Mediterrancan-feas which lay weft, as Nineveb was to the eaft. Tar- Jrife fometimes is ufed for the fea; fee P/. xlviii. 7. he determined to go to fea; he did‘not care where, or to what place he might find a fhip bound; or to Tarfus in Cilicia, the birth-place of the apoftle Paul, Aé?s xxii. 3. fo Fofephus 1 and Saadiah Gaon; or to Tunis in Africa, as R. Melaffer in'Aben Ezra 3 or to Carthage, as Theodoret, and others; or Tarteffus in Spain, as others. Among this difference of interpreters, it is hard to fay what place it was: it feems beft to underftand it of Zarfus. The prophet had better knowledge of God, and of the perfections of his nature, than to imagine he could flee from his general prefence, which is every where, and from which there is no fleeing, P/: cxxxix. 7. but his view was to flee out of that land, where he granted his fpecial prefence to his people; and from that place where were the fymbols of his prefence, the ark, the mercy-feat and cherubim, and in which he f{tood, and miniftred before the Lord; but now upon this order quitted his poft, and deferted his ftation. The reafons given of his conduét are various. The Fewi/b writers fuppofe, that he confulted more the glory of J/rael than the glory of God; that he was fearful, fhould he do as he was bid, the word of the Lord would be carried from Fudea into the Gentile world, and there remain; that he was of opinion that the heathens would repent of their fins at his preaching, tho’ J/rael did not, which would turn to the reproach and condemnation of the latter; fee Matt. xii. 41. and that he knew that the fpirit of prophecy did not dwell upon any out of the land of Ijrael, and therefore got as faft as he could out of it, that he might not be further urged with fuch a meflage; which notion is confuted by the inftances of Feremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel; to this fenfe the Targum inclines, which adds, ‘‘ left he fhould pro- “* phefy in the name of the Lord;” but there is no need to feek for reafons, and which are given by others; fuch as going out of his own country into a foreign one; the length of the journey; the oppofition and difficulties he might expect to meet with; and the rifque he fhould run of his life, l by prophefying in and againft the metropolis of
7a the Afprian empire, where the king’s court and palace were; and he not only an heathen, but a fovereign and arbitrary prince; when the true reafons are fuggefted by the prophet himfelf; as that he fuppofed the people would repent; he knew that God was gracious and merciful, and upon their repentance would not inflict the punifhment pronounced; and he fhould be reckoned a falfe prophet, ch. iv. 2: and went down to foppa; a fea-port town in the tribe of Daz, upon the Mediterranean-fea, where was a haven of fhips, formerly called Fapho, Fofb. xix. 16. at this time Foppa, as it was in the times of the apoftles: here Peter raifed Dorcas to life, and from hence he was fent for by Cornelius, Adis ix. 36. and x. 5. it is now called Faffa; of which Monfieur Tevenot ' fays, ‘ it is a town built upon the top of a rock, ‘© whereof there remains no more at prefent but “ fome towers; and the port of it was at the foot of the faid rock.—It is at prefent a place of few inhabitants; and all that is to be feen of it is a little caftle with two towers, one round, and another fquare; and a great tower feparate from it on one fide. There are no houtes by the fea-fide, but five grots cut in the rock, of which the fourth is in a place of retreat for chriftians.—There is a harbour ftill in the fame place where it was formerly, but there is fo little water in it, that none but fmall barks can enter.” It was a very ancient city, faid ‘ to be older than the flood; and built on a hill fo high,.
that Strabo fays ‘ Ferufalem might be feen from thence, which was forty miles from it. It had its name from ope the daughter of olus, the wife of Cepheus, the founder of it». ‘fonab went hither, either from Yeru/alem, or from Geth-hepher, as Kimchi and Ben Melech obferve: if from the former, it was forty miles to ‘oppa, as Ferom fays; and if from the latter, it is fuppofed to be about fifty: a journey of this length muft be fome time in performing, which fhews with what deliberation and refolution he finned in difobeying the divine command: and he found a fhip going to Tarfoif, jot ready to put to fea, and bound for this place; providence feemed to favour him, and an- {wer to his wifhes; from whence it may be obferved, that the goodnefs of an action, and its ac- _ ceptablenefs to God, are not to be concluded from its wifhed-for fuccefs: fo he paid the fare thereof; the freight of the fhip; the whole of it, according to Farchi; that hafte and a quicker difpatch might be made, and no ftay for paffengers or goods; but that it might be put under fail directly, and he be the fooner out of the land; which, if true, would fhew him to be a man of fubftance; and agrees with a notion of the Jews, and ferves to illuftrate and confirm it, that the {pirit of prophecy does not dwell upon any but a rich man; for which reafon the above interpreter catches at it; but Aven Ezra more truly obferves, that he paid his part, what came to his fhare, what was ufual to be paid fora paflage to fuch a place: and whereas it might be ufual then as ‘now, not topay till they were arrived at port, and went out of the fhip; he paid his fare at entrance, to fecure his paffage, left thro’ any pretence he fhould not be took in upon failing; {9 determined was he to fly from God, and difobey his orders: and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarfoifh from the prefence of the Lord; having paid his fare, he en= — tered the fhip directly, left he fhould be left be hind; and went down into the cabin perhaps, to go along with the mariners and merchants, all heathens, to Lar/hifh, whither they were bound, in order to be clear of any frefh order from the Lord, to go and prophefy againft Nineveh: here again the Yargum adds, ‘* left he fhould prophefy ** in the name of the Lord.” 1
¥. 4. But the Lord fent out a great wind into the fea, &c.} He took a wind out of his treafures, and hurled it, as the word “ fignifies, into the fea: into that fea*; that part of it where the fhip was Yonah was in. Winds are at the command of God, which he raifes at his pleafure, and fulfil his will, and are fervants of his that obey his orders: this here was fent in purfuit of Foxch to ftop him in his voyage, when he thought he had got clear off, and was fafe enough. The ews fay ’, this was done when he had been one day’s voyage: and there was a great tempeft in the fea; which caufed the waves to rife and roar, and become very tus multuous: this wind was an extraordinary one, like that de/aps or ftorm of wind which came down into the fea when the difciples of Chrift were on it ina fhip; or like the euro-clydon, in which the
apoftle Paul was: fo that the fhip was like to be,
broken, it was in danger of it; it feemed as if it would, the waves of the fea were fo ftrong, and beat fo hard upon it. It is in the original text, the foip thought it fhould be broken *; that is, the men in it; they that had the management of it, thought nothing lefs but that it would be dafhed to pieces, and all their goods and lives loft; fo. great was the hurricane occafioned by the wind the Lord fent. It may be rendered, that Srip * was like, &c. The Fews* have a notion, that other fhips paffed to and fro in great tranquillity, and this. only was in diftrefs. ¥. 5. Then the mariners were afraid, &c.] Perceiving that the ftorm was not an ordinary, but a preternatural one; and that the fhip and all in it were in extreme danger, and no probability of being faved. This fhews that the ftorm muft be very violent, to frighten fuch men who were'ufed to the fea, and to ftorms, and were naturally bold and intrepid. The word ufed fignifies falters, fo called from the falt fea they ufed, as they are by us maviners, from mare the fea; tho’ R. Japhet in Aben Ezra thinks the commodity they carried in their vefie] was falt: and cried every man to bis god; to help them, and fave them out of their diftrefs..
In the fhip it feems were men of different nations and who worfhipped different gods. It was a notion of the Zews, and which Farchi mentions as his own, that there were men of the feventv nations of the earth in it; and’as each of them had a different god, they feparately called upon them. The polytheifm of the pagans is to be condemned, and fhews the great uncertainty of their religion; yet this appears to be agreeable to’ the light of nature that there is a'God, and that God is to be prayed unto, and called upon, efpecially in time of trouble: and caft forth the wares that were in
the fhip into the fea, to lighten it of thems or, the
veffels*, a word the Hebrews ufe for all forts of goods, utenfils, &¢c. it includes with others, their military weapons they had to defend them-.
felves, their provifions, the fhip’s ftores or goods it was freighted with; finding their prayers to their gods were ineffectual, they betook themfelves to this prudential method to lighten, the fhip, that. they might be able to keep its head above water, So the Targum, “ when they faw there was no ** profit in them;’* that is, in the gods they called upon, then they did this; the other was a matter ot religion, this a point of prudence; fuch a ftep the mariners took that belonged to the fhip in which the apoftle Paul was, Aé?s xxvii. 18, 19, 38: but Fonah was gone down into the fides of the fhip; into one of its fides, into a cabin there; the loweft fide, as the Targum: and he lay, and was faft afleep; even fnored, as fome verfions have it: it may feem ftrange he fhould, when the wind was fo ftrong and boifterous; the fea roaring; the waves beating; the fhip rolling about; the mariners hurrying from place to place, and calling to each other to do their duty; and the paflengers crying; and above all, that he fhould fall into fo found a fleep, and continue in it, when he had fuch a guilty confcience. This fhews that he was afleep in a fpiritual, as well as in a corporal fenfe.
¥. 6. So the fhip-mafter came to him, &c.| The matter of the veffel, who had the command of it; or the governor of it, as Farchi; tho’ Fofephus * diftinguifhes between the governor and the fhipmafter: the mafter of the ropers*, as it may be rendered; of the failors, whofe bufinefs it was to draw the ropes, to loofe or gather the fails, at his command: miffing him very probably, he fought after him, and found him in the hold, in the bottom of the fhip, on one fide of it faft afleep: and faid unto him, what meaneft thou, O fleeper? this is not a time to fleep, when the fhip is like to be broke to pieces, all lives loft, and thine own too: thus the prophet, who was fent to rebuke the greateft monarch in the world, is himfelf rebuked by a fhip-mafter, and an heathen man, Such an expoftulation as this is proper enough to be ufed with profeffors of religion that are gotten in a fpiritual fenfe into a fleepy and drowfy frame of pirit;
it being an aggravation of it, efpecially when the nation they are of, the church of Chrift they belong to, and their own perfons alfo, are in danger; fee Rom. xiii. 11. Eph. v. 14: arife, call upon thy God; the gods of this fhip-mafter and his men were infufficient to help them; they had ears, but they heard not; nor could: they anfwer them, or relieve them; he is therefore defirous the prophet would pray to his God, tho’ he was unknown to him; or at leaft it fuggefts, that it would better become him to awake, and be up, and praying to his God, than to lie fleeping there; and the manner in which the words are expreffed, without a copulative, fhew the hurry of his fpirit, the ardour of his mind, and the hafte he was in to have that done he advifes to: every good man has a God to pray unto, a covenant-God and Father, and who is a prayer-hearing God; is able to help in time of need, and willing to do it; and it is the duty and intereft of fuch to call upon him in atime of trouble, yea they fhould arife and ftir up themfelves to this fervice; and it may be obferved, that the beft of men may fometimes be in fuch a condition and circumftances, as to need to