Jonah, a bearded prophet in a brown robe, kneeling on rocks by a stormy sea with a great fish behind him, under the title Jonah in the Bible

Jonah in the Bible: The Story of the Whale, Nineveh, and the Sign of Jonah

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Introduction

Dave Miller lost his younger brother on a two-lane highway outside Dayton, Ohio. A driver who had been drinking all afternoon crossed the center line and hit his brother’s pickup head-on. The driver walked away with a broken wrist. Dave’s brother never woke up. That was eleven years ago, and the driver is still in prison.

Last spring, Dave’s church started a prison ministry. The pastor came to him after a Sunday service and said, kindly but plainly, that the man who killed his brother had asked if anyone from the church would come and talk with him about God. The pastor thought Dave should be the one to go. Dave told him he’d think about it. Then he drove home, sat in his truck in the driveway, and didn’t go inside for an hour. Part of him wanted that man to find peace. A bigger part of him didn’t.

That gut-level reaction is the best way into one of the most famous stories in the Bible. Most people know the story of Jonah as the one about the man swallowed by a whale. But the fish is only one part of it. At its heart, the book of Jonah is about a prophet whom God sent to the enemies of his own people, and about how hard it was for that prophet to accept that God wanted to show those enemies mercy.

In this article we’ll go through the life of Jonah from beginning to end, the way the Bible tells it: who he was, what his name means, what kind of city Nineveh was, why he ran the other way, what happened in the storm, whether it was really a whale, what he prayed inside the fish, how a whole city turned around, why Jonah got so angry about it, and what Jesus meant by “the sign of the prophet Jonas.” When we say “the Bible says,” we’ll show you the verse. When we share history or scholars’ opinions, we’ll tell you right there that they’re not Scripture.

Questions in this article:

A quick note on spelling: in the New Testament, the King James Version follows the Greek form of the name and calls Jonah “Jonas.” Jonas and Jonah are the same man.

Who Was Jonah in the Bible, and What Does His Name Mean?

Jonah was a prophet from the northern kingdom of Israel. The book that carries his name is one of the shortest in the Old Testament, just four chapters, and it opens without any introduction at all:

“Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,”

— Jonah 1:1 (KJV)

That’s the opening line of the book. It tells us two things: Jonah’s father was a man named Amittai, and God spoke to Jonah directly. That’s what made him a prophet. A prophet in the Bible wasn’t mainly a fortune-teller. He was a messenger who carried God’s word to people. So if you’ve ever searched “who was Jonah’s father in the Bible,” the answer is right there in the first verse: Amittai. The Bible doesn’t tell us anything else about him.

The book of Jonah isn’t the only place Jonah shows up. He’s also mentioned in the history books of Israel, in a verse about a king named Jeroboam II:

“He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.”

— 2 Kings 14:25 (KJV)

This verse is about King Jeroboam II of Israel. It says he won back territory Israel had lost, pushing the border north to “the entering of Hamath” (in what’s now Syria) and south to “the sea of the plain” (the Dead Sea). And it says this happened because God had promised it through “his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet.” In other words, before Nineveh ever came into the picture, Jonah had already given his own nation a message of good news, and it came true. This verse also tells us where he was from: a town called Gath-hepher.

(Historical note, not in the Bible:) Gath-hepher was in the region of Galilee in northern Israel, in the land given to the tribe of Zebulun (Joshua 19:13). Historians place it just a few miles from Nazareth, the town where Jesus would grow up centuries later. Historians usually date Jeroboam II’s reign to roughly 786–746 BC, which puts Jonah in the 700s BC.

What does the name Jonah mean?

(Language note, not a Bible verse:) In Hebrew, Jonah’s name is Yonah, and it means “dove.” It’s a little ironic. We think of the dove as a symbol of peace, yet the story of the prophet named “Dove” is full of storms, running, and anger. Some Bible readers have pointed out that a dove is also a bird that flutters back and forth, which is a fair description of Jonah’s own heart in this story.

Why is a “Jonah” a bad-luck person on a ship?

(English usage note, not in the Bible:) If you’ve searched “Jonah meaning slang” or “Jonah meaning sailing,” here’s where that comes from. For a long time, English-speaking sailors used the word “Jonah” for a person who was thought to bring bad luck to a ship. The idea comes straight from chapter 1, where the sailors find out that the storm is because of Jonah. That’s a sailors’ expression, not a Bible teaching. As we’ll see, the Bible doesn’t treat Jonah as a bad-luck charm. It shows a man running from God and a God who goes after him.

Did Jonah have a wife and children? How long did he live?

The Bible doesn’t answer these questions. It says nothing about a wife, children, his age, or his death. Here’s everything we know for sure: his father was Amittai, his hometown was Gath-hepher, he prophesied in the time of Jeroboam II, and God sent him to Nineveh.

(Jewish tradition, not in the Bible:) Later Jewish rabbinic writings tell a few stories about Jonah. One tradition says Jonah was the widow’s son at Zarephath whom Elijah raised from the dead. Another says he was the young prophet Elisha sent to anoint Jehu as king (2 Kings 9:1-4). The Bible never says either of these things. They’re traditions only. (If you’d like to read about Elijah and that widow’s son, see our article Elijah in the Bible.)

What Kind of City Was Nineveh, and Why Did God Send Jonah There?

Here’s the command that set the whole story in motion:

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”

— Jonah 1:2 (KJV)

God tells Jonah to get up and go to Nineveh and “cry against it,” meaning to announce God’s judgment on it out loud. The reason is simple: “their wickedness is come up before me.” It’s as if the evil of that city had piled up so high that it reached all the way to heaven. God had seen it, and He wasn’t going to ignore it.

(Historical note, not in the Bible:) Nineveh sat on the east bank of the Tigris River, across from the modern city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It was one of the major cities of the Assyrian Empire, and later (around 700 BC) it became that empire’s capital. Archaeologists have dug up large parts of its ruins, including palace walls carved with scenes of Assyrian kings at war.

To understand Jonah’s reaction, you have to know who the Assyrians were to Israel. They weren’t just foreigners. They were the superpower of that day, and they were known for brutal warfare. Not long after Jonah’s time, Assyria did exactly what Israel feared most:

“In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”

— 2 Kings 17:6 (KJV)

This verse describes the end of the northern kingdom of Israel, Jonah’s own country. The king of Assyria captured Samaria, Israel’s capital, and deported the people to far-off places in his empire. (Historical note:) Historians date this to about 722 BC. When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, the Assyrians hadn’t done it yet, but anyone in Israel could see the threat coming. (To learn more about the tribes of Israel and what happened to them, see our article The 12 Tribes of Israel.)

Another prophet, Nahum, later described Nineveh this way:

“Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;”

— Nahum 3:1 (KJV)

Nahum lived some time after Jonah, and his whole book is a message of judgment against Nineveh. He calls it “the bloody city,” a place full of lies and robbery, where “the prey departeth not,” meaning that the city never stopped hunting for new victims. That’s the reputation Nineveh had. So when God told Jonah to go there, he wasn’t being sent to some neutral city. He was being sent to the capital of his people’s worst enemy.

Why Did Jonah Run Away From God?

Jonah got up, just as God told him to. He just went the opposite direction:

“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”

— Jonah 1:3 (KJV)

Nineveh was to the east, over land. Jonah went west, down to the seaport of Joppa, bought a ticket on a ship bound for Tarshish, and climbed on board. Notice how the verse says “from the presence of the LORD” twice. Jonah wasn’t just changing his travel plans. He was trying to get as far away as he could from the God who had given him a job to do. Notice also how the word “down” keeps coming up: he “went down to Joppa,” then “went down into” the ship. Later he’ll go down into the bottom of the ship, and then down into the sea. Running from God is a downhill road.

(Historical note, not in the Bible:) Joppa is the old port city known today as Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv in Israel. Many scholars think Tarshish was Tartessos, a trading center in what is now southern Spain. If that’s right, Jonah picked about the farthest western destination a ship from Israel could take him to in his day.

So why did he run? The first chapter doesn’t tell us. Jonah gives the reason himself, but not until chapter 4, after Nineveh has been spared: “for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil” (Jonah 4:2). In plain words, Jonah wasn’t mainly afraid of the Assyrians. He was afraid that if he warned them, they might repent, and then God would forgive them. He didn’t want his enemies to get mercy.

Of course, you can’t actually outrun God. King David had written about this very thing long before Jonah:

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”

— Psalms 139:7-10 (KJV)

In this psalm, the writer is amazed at how well God knows him. He asks where he could possibly go to get away from God, and every answer is the same: God is already there. Up in heaven, down in the world of the dead (“hell” here means the grave, the place of the dead), or across “the uttermost parts of the sea,” God’s hand is still there. Jonah was about to find out that this is true, out in the middle of the sea.

The Storm at Sea: What Happened on the Ship?

Jonah’s escape didn’t last long:

“But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.”

— Jonah 1:4-5 (KJV)

The Bible says it plainly: the LORD sent this storm. It was so bad that the ship was about to break apart. These sailors were experienced men, and they were terrified. Each one prayed to his own god, and they started throwing the cargo overboard to keep the ship afloat. And where was Jonah, the one man on board who actually knew the true God? Down in the lowest part of the ship, sound asleep. The sailors who didn’t know the LORD were praying. The prophet of the LORD was sleeping.

“So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”

— Jonah 1:6 (KJV)

The ship’s captain found Jonah and woke him up. You can almost hear him shouting over the wind, asking how Jonah could sleep at a time like this and telling him to get up and pray. There’s a painful irony here. “Arise” is the same thing God had told Jonah to do back in verse 2. Now a pagan sea captain is saying the same word to him. God had told Jonah to “cry against” Nineveh, and now the captain is telling him to “call upon” his God. Jonah was running from God, but God kept putting His message in other people’s mouths.

“And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?”

— Jonah 1:7-8 (KJV)

The sailors figured this was no ordinary storm. Somebody on board must have done something to anger the gods. So they cast lots, something like drawing straws, to find out who it was. The lot fell on Jonah. Then the questions came all at once: What do you do? Where are you from? What country? What people? They wanted to know exactly who this man was.

“And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”

— Jonah 1:9 (KJV)

Jonah’s answer is a beautiful statement of faith, and at that moment, a deeply uncomfortable one. “I fear the LORD, the God of heaven,” he says, the God “which hath made the sea and the dry land.” He believed God made the sea, and yet he had tried to escape from God by sea. What he said with his mouth didn’t match what he was doing with his feet.

“Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.”

— Jonah 1:10 (KJV)

The sailors were already scared of the storm. Now they were “exceedingly afraid.” Jonah had told them earlier that he was running from his God, and now they realized his God was the one who made the very sea that was about to swallow them. “Why hast thou done this?” is a question of horror, not curiosity.

“Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.”

— Jonah 1:11-12 (KJV)

The storm kept getting worse, so they asked Jonah what they should do. His answer: throw me overboard, and the sea will calm down. He admitted the storm was his fault. Some readers see courage here, a man willing to die so others could live. Others notice that he still didn’t turn back to God and agree to go to Nineveh. He seemed more willing to die than to obey.

“Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.”

— Jonah 1:13-14 (KJV)

The sailors didn’t want to throw him in. They rowed as hard as they could to get back to shore, but the sea fought them all the way. So they prayed, and look who they prayed to. Not their own gods this time, but “the LORD.” They asked Him not to hold them guilty for this man’s death. These pagan sailors showed more compassion for Jonah than Jonah was showing for Nineveh.

“So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.”

— Jonah 1:15-16 (KJV)

The moment Jonah hit the water, the sea went calm. The sailors’ fear turned into worship. They “feared the LORD exceedingly,” offered a sacrifice to Him, and made vows. Here’s the surprise of chapter 1: Jonah ran away so he wouldn’t have to bring God’s message to foreigners, and through his disobedience, a ship full of foreigners came to worship the LORD anyway.

The storm at sea and Jesus asleep in the boat

(Comparison, for reflection:) Many Bible readers have noticed how this scene lines up with a story about Jesus in the Gospels:

“And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.”

— Matthew 8:24-26 (KJV)

Jesus and His disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee when a violent storm hit. Waves were pouring into the boat, and Jesus was asleep. The disciples woke Him up in a panic: “Lord, save us: we perish.” Jesus asked them why they were so afraid, then stood up and spoke to the wind and the waves, and everything went still. The two stories have a lot in common: a ship, a great storm, a man asleep, frightened people waking him up, the word “perish,” and a calm sea at the end. But the differences are what stand out. Jonah was asleep because he was running from God. Jesus was asleep because He trusted His Father completely. The sea calmed down when Jonah was thrown into it. The sea calmed down when Jesus simply told it to. That’s one reason Jesus could later say, “a greater than Jonas is here.”

Was It a Whale? Three Days in the Belly of a Great Fish

Jonah went down into the sea, and the Bible says this happened next:

“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

— Jonah 1:17 (KJV)

The key word in this verse is “prepared.” The fish wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t a sea monster attacking a man who had been thrown overboard. God had arranged it ahead of time. What looked like the end of Jonah’s life was actually God’s way of saving him. Jonah stayed inside that fish for “three days and three nights.”

(Language note, not in the Bible:) The Hebrew word translated “prepared” (manah, “appointed”) appears four times in the book of Jonah, and the King James Version translates it “prepared” every time: the great fish (1:17), the gourd plant (4:6), the worm (4:7), and the east wind (4:8). God is in charge of the big things and the small things, a giant fish and a tiny worm, and He uses all of them to deal with one stubborn prophet.

Was it a whale or a fish?

The book of Jonah itself never says “whale.” The Hebrew phrase is dag gadol, which simply means “a great fish.” The word “whale” comes from the New Testament. When Jesus talked about Jonah, the King James Version has Him saying, “as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly” (Matthew 12:40).

(Language note, not in the Bible:) The Greek word in Matthew 12:40 is ketos, which means “a huge sea creature” or “sea monster.” It wasn’t a precise scientific term for the animals we call whales today. So “whale” and “great fish” aren’t contradicting each other. The Bible just doesn’t tell us what species it was, and people who insist it was a sperm whale or a shark are guessing. What the Bible does tell us is that God prepared it.

Could a man really survive three days inside a fish?

Not naturally, no. And the Bible doesn’t present it as a natural event. It presents it as a miracle that God “prepared.” (Differing views:) Many Christians believe the story of Jonah happened just as it’s written. They point out that Jesus Himself spoke about Jonah and the people of Nineveh as real people (Matthew 12:40-41). Some scholars read the book of Jonah as a story told to teach a lesson, something like a parable. In this article we tell the story the way the Bible tells it, and we’re not ruling on which view is correct. But there’s one thing people on both sides agree on: the main message of the book of Jonah isn’t about a fish. It’s about the mercy of God.

What Did Jonah Pray in the Belly of the Fish?

Jonah had refused to pray on the ship, even when the captain begged him to. Inside the fish, he finally prayed. All of chapter 2 is that prayer.

“Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.”

— Jonah 2:1-2 (KJV)

Jonah prayed “out of the fish’s belly.” He starts by saying he cried out to the LORD in his distress, “and he heard me.” He calls his situation “the belly of hell.” In the King James Version, “hell” in this verse translates the Hebrew word Sheol, which in the Old Testament usually means the grave or the realm of the dead. In plain words, Jonah is saying he was as good as dead, and God still heard him. (For more on what the Bible says about death and the realm of the dead, see our article Body, Soul, and Spirit: What Happens When You Die?)

“For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.”

— Jonah 2:3-4 (KJV)

Look at who Jonah says threw him into the sea: “thou hadst cast me into the deep.” The sailors physically threw him overboard, but Jonah knew it was God’s hand behind it. He also calls the waves “thy billows and thy waves.” Even the sea belonged to God. Jonah felt completely rejected, “cast out of thy sight,” and yet he didn’t give up: “yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.” The temple in Jerusalem was the place where God had promised to meet His people. Jonah was turning back toward God.

“The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.”

— Jonah 2:5-6 (KJV)

Jonah describes sinking down to the very bottom: water up to his throat, the deep sea closing over him, seaweed wrapped around his head, down to “the bottoms of the mountains.” He felt like the earth had locked its gates behind him “for ever.” This is the lowest point of the “going down” that started when he “went down to Joppa.” And then the prayer turns: “yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption.” The word “corruption” here means the pit, the grave. When Jonah had gone as low as a man can go, God brought him up.

“When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.”

— Jonah 2:7 (KJV)

“When my soul fainted within me” means when his life was slipping away and he had nothing left. That’s the moment he “remembered the LORD.” Many of us know what that’s like. We often turn back to God only when everything else has failed. The good news in this verse is that God didn’t tell him it was too late. Jonah’s prayer reached Him.

“They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.”

— Jonah 2:8-9 (KJV)

“Lying vanities” means worthless idols, false gods. Jonah says people who cling to those things are walking away from the mercy that could have been theirs. Then he promises to give thanks to God and keep the vows he made. And he ends with one of the great lines in the Bible: “Salvation is of the LORD.” Rescue doesn’t come from our own goodness, our nationality, or our religious performance. It comes from God alone. There’s an irony here too. Jonah has no trouble saying that salvation belongs to God when God is saving him. In chapter 4, he’ll have a much harder time with it when God saves Nineveh.

(Bible scholars’ note:) Scholars point out that much of Jonah’s prayer echoes lines from the book of Psalms (for example Psalm 18:6; 42:7; 120:1). Jonah seems to have prayed using words of Scripture he already knew by heart.

“And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”

— Jonah 2:10 (KJV)

God spoke to the fish, and the fish obeyed. It spat Jonah out onto dry land. Throughout this book, everything God speaks to obeys Him right away: the wind, the sea, the fish, and later the plant, the worm, and the east wind. The only one who keeps arguing with God is His own prophet.

Did Jonah die in the belly of the fish?

The Bible doesn’t say directly. (Differing views:) Some readers believe Jonah actually died inside the fish and God brought him back to life, pointing to words like “the belly of hell” and “brought up my life from corruption.” Most commentators read those phrases as poetic language for being at the edge of death, the way the Psalms often describe being rescued from the grave. Both groups agree that Jonah’s coming out of the fish after three days became a picture that Jesus used for His own death and resurrection. We’ll look at that below.

How Did God Give Jonah a Second Chance?

Chapter 3 opens almost exactly the way chapter 1 did:

“And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.”

— Jonah 3:1-3 (KJV)

“The second time.” Those three words carry a lot of grace. God didn’t fire Jonah. He didn’t go find a better prophet. He came back to the same man who ran from Him and gave him the same job. This time Jonah obeyed: he “arose, and went unto Nineveh.” The verse also says Nineveh was “an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.”

(Commentators’ explanations:) Nobody knows exactly what “three days’ journey” means. Some think it describes the size of the whole greater Nineveh area, including the towns around it. Others think it means it took three days to walk through all its streets and neighborhoods. Others think it refers to the custom of an official visit: a day to arrive, a day to do business, and a day to leave. Whatever the details, the point is clear. This was a huge city.

If you’ve ever failed God badly, this verse is for you. The God of Jonah is a God of second chances. (If you’re carrying a mistake you can’t let go of, our article I Made a Mistake: Will God Forgive Me? may help.)

“And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

— Jonah 3:4 (KJV)

Jonah walked one day’s distance into the city and started preaching. His whole message, at least as the Bible records it, was this: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” There’s no explanation, no invitation, and no mention of God’s mercy. Just a warning.

(Language note, not in the Bible:) In Hebrew, Jonah’s sermon is only five words long. It may be the shortest sermon in the Bible, and maybe the most effective sermon in history.

How Did the People of Nineveh Repent?

What happened next is the most surprising part of the whole book:

“So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.”

— Jonah 3:5-6 (KJV)

“The people of Nineveh believed God.” Jonah didn’t have to argue with them or prove anything. They believed, and they showed it. They declared a fast and dressed in sackcloth, a rough, scratchy cloth that people in the ancient world wore when they were mourning or deeply sorry. Everyone did it, “from the greatest of them even to the least of them.” When the news reached the king, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat down in ashes. The most powerful man in the most feared empire on earth was sitting in the dust.

“And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?”

— Jonah 3:7-9 (KJV)

The king made it official. He and his nobles issued a decree: no food and no water for anyone, people or animals. Everyone was to wear sackcloth (even the animals) and “cry mightily unto God.” But the most important part of the order is this: “let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.” Fasting and sackcloth were outward signs. Real repentance meant stopping the violence. Then the king said something remarkable: “Who can tell if God will turn and repent.” He didn’t assume God owed them anything. He was hoping for mercy, not demanding it. And notice his last words: “that we perish not.” That’s the same thing the sea captain said in chapter 1.

“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”

— Jonah 3:10 (KJV)

God “saw their works.” He didn’t just see the sackcloth. He saw “that they turned from their evil way.” And because they turned, God “repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” The disaster Jonah had announced didn’t come.

Does God “change His mind”?

When the KJV says God “repented,” it doesn’t mean God had done something wrong and was sorry for it. The word means that God turned from the judgment He had announced. In fact, God had told His people ahead of time that this is how He works:

“At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”

— Jeremiah 18:7-8 (KJV)

God gave this message through the prophet Jeremiah after sending him to watch a potter at work. The potter was shaping clay, and when a pot didn’t turn out right, he reshaped it. God said that’s how He deals with nations. If He announces judgment against a nation and that nation turns from its evil, He will hold back the judgment. So God’s warnings aren’t always a final, locked-in sentence. Often, they’re an invitation to turn around. That’s exactly what happened at Nineveh. God hadn’t changed His character. Nineveh had changed its ways, and God’s unchanging character responded with mercy.

Then what happened to Nineveh later?

Nineveh’s repentance didn’t last forever. More than a century later, the prophet Nahum delivered another message against the city:

“The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”

— Nahum 1:1-3 (KJV)

Nahum’s book is “the burden of Nineveh,” a heavy message of judgment against it. He says the LORD “is slow to anger,” the same thing Jonah said about God, but He “will not at all acquit the wicked.” Put Jonah and Nahum side by side and you see both sides of God’s character. He is patient and merciful when people turn to Him, and He is just when they keep doing evil.

(Historical note, not in the Bible:) History records that in 612 BC an alliance of Babylonians and Medes captured and destroyed Nineveh. The great city was never rebuilt as a capital, and its ruins lay buried for centuries.

Why Was Jonah Angry When God Spared Nineveh?

You’d think a preacher would be thrilled if an entire city responded to his sermon. Jonah wasn’t:

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”

— Jonah 4:1-3 (KJV)

Here, finally, Jonah tells us why he ran. Jonah reminds God that he saw this coming while he was still back home. That’s why he ran off to Tarshish: he knew God was gracious and merciful, slow to anger, full of kindness, and quick to hold back judgment. He knew exactly who God was, and that was his problem. He didn’t want the Assyrians to receive that kind of mercy. He was so upset that he asked God to take his life.

(Comparison:) Jonah isn’t the only prophet who asked God to let him die. The prophet Elijah did the same thing under a juniper tree after Jezebel threatened him (1 Kings 19:4). But Elijah was worn out and afraid. Jonah was angry because God had been kind to people he didn’t like.

The words Jonah used to describe God weren’t his own. They come from one of the most important moments in the Old Testament:

“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

— Exodus 34:6-7 (KJV)

This was spoken on Mount Sinai, when God revealed Himself to Moses. Shortly before, the people of Israel had worshiped a golden calf, and God forgave them. Here God describes His own character: merciful, gracious, slow to anger (“longsuffering”), full of goodness, forgiving sin, and yet not ignoring guilt. Israel treasured this description of God for centuries. Jonah treasured it too, as long as it applied to Israel. What he couldn’t stand was the idea that it applied to Assyria as well. (You can read more about this moment in our article The Life of Moses.)

“Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?”

— Jonah 4:4 (KJV)

God’s answer to Jonah’s outburst is gentle. He doesn’t strike him down or scold him. He asks one question: “Doest thou well to be angry?” In other words: is it right for you to be this angry? It’s a question meant to make Jonah stop and look at his own heart. Jonah doesn’t answer. (If you struggle with anger yourself, see our article I Can’t Control My Anger Anymore — What Does the Bible Say?)

The Plant, the Worm, and the East Wind: What Was God Teaching Jonah?

Jonah still hadn’t given up hope that God might destroy the city after all:

“So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.”

— Jonah 4:5 (KJV)

Jonah walked out of the city, set up a little shelter on the east side, and sat down in its shade to watch. He was waiting “till he might see what would become of the city.” Maybe the forty days would end with fire after all. He had a front-row seat, and he was hoping for a show.

“And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.”

— Jonah 4:6-7 (KJV)

God “prepared” a plant (the KJV calls it a gourd) and made it grow up over Jonah to shade his head. For the first time in the whole book, Jonah is happy: he was “exceeding glad of the gourd.” Then, at dawn the next day, God “prepared” a worm, and it attacked the plant until it dried up and died.

(Language note, not in the Bible:) In Hebrew, this plant is called qiqayon. Many scholars think it may have been the castor-oil plant, which grows fast and has large leaves. The Bible doesn’t say for sure.

“And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.”

— Jonah 4:8-9 (KJV)

When the sun came up, God “prepared” a scorching east wind off the desert. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head until he nearly passed out, and once again he wanted to die: “It is better for me to die than to live.” God asked him the question again, this time about the plant: “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” And this time Jonah answered, defiantly: “I do well to be angry, even unto death.” Yes, he said, I have every right to be angry, angry enough to die.

Then God made His point:

“Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”

— Jonah 4:10-11 (KJV)

God’s argument goes like this. Jonah, you feel sorry for this plant. You didn’t plant it, you didn’t water it, you didn’t make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And you’re this upset about it. Then shouldn’t I care about Nineveh, a huge city with more than 120,000 people (‘sixscore thousand’) who can’t tell their right hand from their left, and lots of animals too? Jonah grieved over a plant because it made him comfortable. God grieved over a city because He made every person in it.

(Commentators’ explanations:) People understand “cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand” in different ways. Some think it refers to young children too little to know right from left, which would make the city’s total population much larger. Others think it describes the people of Nineveh in general, who didn’t know God’s law and couldn’t tell right from wrong spiritually. Either way, God is saying they deserved pity, not just punishment.

Why Does the Book of Jonah End With a Question? What Happened to Jonah After That?

The book of Jonah ends with God’s question: “should not I spare Nineveh?” And that’s it. There’s no reply from Jonah. We aren’t told whether he softened, whether he went back into the city, or whether he stayed angry. The story just stops.

Many readers believe that’s on purpose. The question isn’t only for Jonah. It’s for everyone who reads the book. Each of us has to answer it: Should God care about the people I don’t like? Should He show mercy to the people I’d rather see punished?

(Comparison, for reflection:) Jesus told a story with a very similar ending: the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). A younger son wastes his inheritance and comes home broken, and his father throws him a party. The older brother is furious and won’t come inside. The father goes out and pleads with him, and the story ends there. We never find out if the older brother went in. Like Jonah, he was angry about grace being shown to someone else, and like Jonah’s story, his story ends with the question left hanging.

(Differing views, not in the Bible:) The Bible doesn’t say who wrote the book of Jonah. Jewish and Christian tradition has often held that Jonah wrote it himself, which would mean he was honest enough to tell a story that makes him look bad. Many modern scholars believe it was written later by someone else. We’re not ruling on which view is right. But it’s worth noticing that the book makes no effort to make its own prophet look good.

Where and when did Jonah die?

The Bible says nothing about Jonah’s death or where he was buried. (Traditions, not proven:) There are different traditions about Jonah’s tomb. One places it near the ruins of ancient Nineveh, on a hill in the city of Mosul known as Nabi Yunus (“the prophet Jonah”). An old mosque stood there for centuries, and ISIS militants blew it up in 2014. Another tradition places Jonah’s tomb near his hometown, Gath-hepher, in Galilee. None of these has been proven.

(Jewish practice, not in the Bible:) To this day, Jewish people read the entire book of Jonah during the afternoon service on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is the holiest day of their year. It’s read as a story about repentance and about God’s willingness to forgive.

What Is “the Sign of Jonah”? What Did Jesus Say About Jonah?

Jonah’s story doesn’t end in the Old Testament. Jesus Himself talked about him:

“Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”

— Matthew 12:38-41 (KJV)

Some religious leaders came to Jesus and demanded a miraculous sign to prove who He was. They had already seen Him heal the sick, but they wanted something more on their own terms. Jesus refused. He said the only sign they’d get was “the sign of the prophet Jonas.” Just as Jonah spent three days and three nights inside the great fish, Jesus would spend three days and three nights “in the heart of the earth,” meaning in the grave, and then come out again. In other words, His resurrection would be the sign.

Then Jesus said something even sharper. The people of Nineveh, those pagan enemies of Israel, would stand up on judgment day and condemn the people of His generation. Why? Because Nineveh repented when Jonah preached a five-word warning. And now “a greater than Jonas is here,” and they still wouldn’t listen. Jesus wasn’t comparing Himself to Jonah as an equal. He was saying He is far greater.

The apostle Paul later summed up the heart of the Christian message this way:

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

— 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (KJV)

Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, reminding them of the most important part of the gospel he had taught them: Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again “the third day.” Notice the phrase “according to the scriptures.” Paul believed the Old Testament had pointed to these events ahead of time, and Jesus Himself pointed to Jonah as one of those pictures.

Luke records Jesus saying it a little differently:

“And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.”

— Luke 11:29-30 (KJV)

Here a big crowd was pressing around Jesus. He said that just as Jonah himself was “a sign unto the Ninevites,” He would be a sign to His own generation. Think about what that means. Jonah showed up in Nineveh as a man who had, in a sense, come back from the dead. Jesus would do the same thing in an even greater way.

“A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.”

— Matthew 16:4 (KJV)

On another occasion, the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus by asking for “a sign from heaven.” He gave them the same answer, “the sign of the prophet Jonas,” and then simply walked away. Jesus didn’t perform miracles on demand for people who had already made up their minds not to believe.

How do “three days and three nights” fit?

Some people ask how Jesus could be “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” if He died on Friday afternoon and rose early Sunday morning. (Scholars’ explanation:) Many scholars explain that in Jewish counting of that time, any part of a day could be counted as a whole day. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning together could be described as “three days and three nights.” That’s also why the New Testament can say Jesus rose “the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:4) and use Jonah’s three days and three nights as a picture of the same event. Other Christians suggest the crucifixion happened earlier in the week. The Bible’s main point is the same either way: just as Jonah came out of the fish, Jesus came out of the tomb.

Peter, Joppa, and the Gentiles: an interesting comparison

(Comparison, for reflection:) There’s a fascinating connection between Jonah and the apostle Peter. When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus answered:

“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

— Matthew 16:17 (KJV)

Peter had just said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus told him that no human being had taught him that. God the Father had shown it to him. Jesus called him “Simon Barjona,” which means “Simon, son of Jona.” (Language note:) Peter’s father had the same name as the prophet Jonah. (In John’s Gospel, Peter’s father is called by a closely related name, which some translations render “John.”)

Years later, God sent a message to a Roman army officer named Cornelius, a Gentile:

“And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.”

— Acts 10:5-6 (KJV)

An angel told Cornelius to send men to Joppa and bring back Simon Peter, who was staying at the house of a tanner by the sea. And here’s the comparison. Centuries earlier, Jonah went to Joppa to run away from bringing God’s message to Gentiles. Now Peter, a “son of Jona,” was in the very same port city when God called him to take the gospel to a Gentile family. Peter hesitated at first, but he went, and Cornelius and his household believed (Acts 10). Where the first Jonah ran, the “son of Jona” obeyed.

“Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet,” but what about Jonah?

(A note for reflection:) Once, when Nicodemus spoke up for Jesus, the other religious leaders shot back at him:

“They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.”

— John 7:52 (KJV)

These leaders were dismissing Jesus because He came from Galilee, a region they looked down on. They told Nicodemus to search the Scriptures and he would see that no prophet comes from Galilee. But Jonah’s hometown, Gath-hepher, was in the region of Galilee, just a few miles from Nazareth (2 Kings 14:25; Joshua 19:13). The very prophet whom Jesus would later call His “sign” came from the same area those leaders were sneering at. (Some scholars note that the leaders may have meant “the Prophet” promised by Moses, so their words can be read in more than one way.)

The Book of Jonah Summary: All Four Chapters

If you’d like the whole story at a glance, here’s a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book of Jonah:

  • Chapter 1: Running from God. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah boards a ship heading the other way, to Tarshish. God sends a great storm. The sailors cast lots, and the lot falls on Jonah. He tells them to throw him overboard. The sea goes calm, and the sailors worship the LORD. God prepares a great fish, and it swallows Jonah (Jonah 1:1-17).
  • Chapter 2: Praying from the bottom. From inside the fish, Jonah prays to God. He remembers the LORD when his life is slipping away and declares, “Salvation is of the LORD.” God speaks to the fish, and it spits Jonah out onto dry land (Jonah 2:1-10).
  • Chapter 3: A second chance and a city that turned around. God speaks to Jonah a second time. Jonah goes to Nineveh and warns, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The people believe God, and from the king down, they fast and turn from their violence. God holds back the judgment (Jonah 3:1-10).
  • Chapter 4: An angry prophet and a merciful God. Jonah is furious that Nineveh was spared. God provides a plant for shade, then a worm to destroy it, then a scorching east wind. Jonah grieves over the plant. God asks whether He shouldn’t care about a great city full of people. The book ends with that question (Jonah 4:1-11).

What Does Jonah’s Life Teach Us?

  • You can’t outrun God. Jonah tried to get away “from the presence of the LORD,” but God met him in the storm, in the sea, and inside the fish. As the psalm says, “whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalm 139:7). The good news is that God doesn’t chase us down to destroy us. He comes after us to bring us back.
  • God gives second chances. “The word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time.” Our failures aren’t the end of the story. God didn’t throw Jonah away, and He doesn’t throw us away either.
  • It’s never too late to pray. Jonah prayed from “the belly of hell,” and God heard him. No matter how dark your situation is, prayer still reaches God. For the days when every door seems closed, read our article What Does God Say When You Reach a Dead End in Life?
  • “Salvation is of the LORD.” Rescue doesn’t come from our goodness, our nationality, or our religious traditions. It comes from God’s grace. If we’ve received that grace for free, we should want others to receive it too.
  • God’s mercy is bigger than we think. God had compassion even on Nineveh, a city known for cruelty. His mercy isn’t limited to one nation, one group, or the people we happen to like. (For more on how God can bring good even out of people who hurt us, see The Good God Does for Us Through Those Who Hurt Us.)
  • Who is your “Nineveh”? Is there a person or a group you can’t love, can’t forgive, or quietly hope never gets a break? The question at the end of Jonah is for us too: “should not I spare Nineveh?”
  • Check your anger in front of God. “Doest thou well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4). Often our anger isn’t really about justice. It’s about our comfort or our pride being hurt. Jonah grieved over a plant, but not over a city.
  • Real repentance means a changed life. The people of Nineveh didn’t stop at fasting and sackcloth. They turned “from the violence that is in their hands.” What God saw was “that they turned from their evil way” (Jonah 3:10).
  • God can work even through reluctant servants. Jonah preached unwillingly, with only a few words, and a whole city changed. The results depend on God’s power, not on how impressive we are.
  • It all points to Jesus. Jonah spent three days in the fish and came out alive. Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. Jesus said “a greater than Jonas is here” (Matthew 12:41). Jonah went to his enemies unwillingly. Jesus willingly gave His life for sinners.

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Bible Passages About the Life of Jonah

  1. Jonah, his hometown, and his times — 2 Kings 14:23-27; Joshua 19:13
  2. God’s command and Jonah’s flight — Jonah 1:1-3; Psalm 139:7-12
  3. The storm at sea and the sailors — Jonah 1:4-16; Matthew 8:23-27
  4. The great fish — Jonah 1:17; 2:10
  5. Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the fish — Jonah 2:1-9
  6. The second chance and Jonah’s message — Jonah 3:1-4
  7. Nineveh repents — Jonah 3:5-10; Jeremiah 18:7-10
  8. Jonah’s anger and the character of God — Jonah 4:1-4; Exodus 34:6-7
  9. The plant, the worm, the east wind, and God’s final question — Jonah 4:5-11
  10. Assyria and the fall of Nineveh — 2 Kings 17:5-6; Nahum 1–3
  11. The sign of Jonah — Matthew 12:38-41; 16:1-4; Luke 11:29-32; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
  12. The parable of the prodigal son — Luke 15:11-32
  13. Peter, Joppa, and Cornelius — Matthew 16:17; Acts 10
  14. A prophet from Galilee — John 7:50-52

Historical Sources Used in This Article

Disclaimers

On language: we’ve written this article in plain, everyday English that anyone can follow, even without a church background.

On the story and opinions: there are no fictional stories in this article. Jonah’s story is told the way the Bible records it. The story of Dave in the introduction is only an illustration to help explain the idea; Dave is not a real person. Where the Bible doesn’t give a direct answer (whether the book of Jonah is history or parable, whale or fish, whether Jonah died inside the fish, the “three days’ journey,” the people who “cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,” how “three days and three nights” is counted, the comparison with Jesus calming the storm, the comparison with the parable of the prodigal son, the comparison with Peter and Joppa, the note on the prophet from Galilee, who wrote the book, the name of the plant, the meanings of Hebrew and Greek words, the sailors’ slang “a Jonah,” Jewish traditions, and the tomb traditions), we’ve shared the explanations of scholars and commentators and historical information, and labeled them clearly as such where they appear. We’re not ruling on which of those explanations is correct.

On the verses: every Bible quotation in this article is from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain English translation. Under each verse, we’ve explained the situation it was spoken in, in plain words, for readers who may not know the Bible well. To understand any verse fully, read the whole chapter it comes from in your own Bible. This article is not a complete or final explanation of the subject, and it isn’t arguing for or against any particular church tradition. Treat it as a study aid only.

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