Jonah

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. Now the word of the Lord came] Heb. And the word For with that particle "And" the Hebrews sometimes begin a discourse, as #Eze 1:1 Le 1:1, an elegance proper to that tongue. Howbeit Hugo Cardinalis maketh this "And," not an inceptive particle, but a copulative to many other things that were in the prophet’s mind. Others conceive it to be continuative of some other history not now extant; or at least connective of this history with the course of his ordinary calling and prophetic employment among the ten tribes, to whom he prophesied together with Hosea, Amos, and others, but with little good success, in the reign of Jeroboam II:, a prince more prosperous than pious, #2Ki 14:25. Jonah prophesied of his prosperity and victories; whereof when no good use was made by the house of Israel, their calamity and captivity was likewise foretold by Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah; and hence some conclude that Jonah was the first of all the prophets whose writings are extant; for he lived, say they, before the battle of Joash, King of Israel, with the Syrians, about the end of the life and prophecy of Elisha, #2Ki 13:14.

Unto Jonah the son of Amittai] Jonah signifieth a dove, but Jonah had too little of the dove in him: plenus enim fuit effraenatis motibus, saith one; as passionate a man of an honest man as you have lightly heard of, saith another. Whether he was that "mad fellow" (as those much more mad captains called him #2Ki 9:11), that was sent to anoint Jehu, or else the widow of Sarepta’s son raised by Elijah (as the Hebrews will have him to be), I have not to say. But that he was a servant of the Lord we find, #2Ki 14:25, and a type of Christ, #Mt 12:40, concerning whom he prophesied, non tam sermone quam sua quadam passione (Augustine), far more plainly than if he had by voice foretold his death and resurrection. And whereas the grandees and potentates of the world get them a great name by the death and danger of many others; Ionas his omnibus superior est, saith an interpreter, Jonah surpasseth them all in this, that by his sermon at Nineveh he preserved that great city, wherein were so many thousand persons, and so much cattle, #Jon 4:11. That he was called and sent thither by God it appeareth by this text, and Oecolampadius observeth it. He was not, saith he, of them that run before they are sent; but, being sent, he refused to run, because of the hardness of the task laid upon him, as did likewise Moses and Jeremiah, till better tutored. There is less danger in refusing to run when sent than in running unsent. But when God calleth a man to the ministry, let him not doubt or despond, though at first he find not so much encouragement. Magna semper fecerunt, qui Deo vocante docuerunt, saith Luther. They have always done great things that have followed God’s call, as did Jonah at Nineveh, and doth still in the Church of God; for among others Cyprian, that famous martyr, confesseth that he was converted from idolatry and necromancy by hearing the history of the prophet Jonah read and expounded to him by Cecilius, whom he thenceforth called novae vitro parentem, the father of his Christian life.

Ver. 2. Arise, go to Nineveh] Haec est vocatio prophetae, saith Oecolampadius: this was the prophet’s call, which he should have obeyed without bucking or shucking, delays or disputes, conferring, or consulting with flesh and blood, #Ga 1:16. True it is, that in human governments, where reason is shut out, there tyranny is thrust in. As in the papacy (where the whore sitteth upon them, #Re 17:1, that is, useth them vilely and basely; sitteth upon their consciences, as Rachel did upon her father’s images), though their superiors command the friars a voyage to China or Peru, without dispute or delay they must presently set forward; to detract or disobey in this case is held breach of vow, equal to sacrilege: this is intolerable tyranny. But where God calleth or commandeth (as here), to ask a reason is presumption; to oppose reason is rebellion. Paul dared not but be obedient to the heavenly vision, #Ac 26:19. Jonah declined his apostleship (την αποστολην παρητησατο, as a father calleth it), but it had like to have cost him a choking; whereof, when in danger, he could confess that "They that observe lying vanities" (as he had done to his cost) "forsake their own mercy," #Jon 2:8, are miserable by their own election. As for the expression here used, "Arise, go," it is hortantis particula, et studium notat; it is an encouraging and exciting particle. Up and be doing. Be "fervent in spirit; serving the Lord," #Ro 12:11. Surge, age, summe Pater, said Mantuan to the Pope, exciting him to take up arms against the Turk. There is a curse to him that doeth the work of the Lord negligently, #Jer 48:10, and a command to do it with all our might, #Ec 9:10.

Nineveh, that great city] Built by Ninus, and by him so named; as Adrianople, Constantinople, Charlestown, &c. A great city it was, indeed, never any so great; as consisting of three cities, and having more people within the walls, than are now in some one kingdom, saith an author. It was sixty miles about, saith Diodorus Siculus (Bunting saith Alcaire at this day is no less: Paulus Venetus saith Quinsay, in Tartary, is a hundred miles in circuit, but we are not bound to believe him. It is enough that Cambalu, the chief city there, is twenty-eight miles in compass). Nineveh was three days’ journey in Jonah’s days, fortified with a wall of a hundred feet high; and that also beautified, and beset with fifteen hundred towers, each of them erected to the height of two hundred feet. Thus far Diodorus, who also tells us that this great city received one ruin by the river Tigris, which, at an inundation, brake out upon the wall, and threw down two and a half miles of it, see #Na 1:8. Its last destruction was undertaken and ended by Nebuchadnezzar, as the Jews in their chronology testify. Herodotus saith, by Cyaxares, not by Astyages, as Jerome mistaketh him. If Sardanapalus were King of Nineveh when Jonah cried against it (as Corn. a Lapide contendeth), it was much that such an egregious voluptuary should so soon be wrought upon, as #Jon 3. But he and his people soon relapsed to their former impiety; and were therefore destroyed, as Nahum had foretold; so that it may now be said of Nineveh, as once it was of another great city, in Strabo, magna civitas, magna solitudo. That great city is become a great desert, see #Zep 2:15, it is nothing now but a sepulchre of itself, a little town of small trade, where Nestorius’s sect have taken their shelter, at the devotion of the Turk. It is become like that other Nineveh mentioned by Eusebius, quae est parvum quoddam in angulo Arabico oppidum, which is a certain little town in a corner of Arabia (Lib. de loc. Ebraic.).

And cry against it] Cry aloud with open mouth and full throat, sic clames, ut Stentora vincere possis. The voice said, Cry: but what should he cry? #Isa 41:6-8. Cry that their wickedness is come up before me (so some), but that is not all. Cry, as #Jon 3:5, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed, for their wickedness is come, &c., their iniquity will be their ruin; tell them so from me, #Isa 41:10,11.

Their wickedness is come up before me] Their pride, cruelty, and other many and bony sins, as Amos hath it, #Am 5:12. Of their idolatry we read not, and yet we doubt not; they declared their sins as Sodom, #Isa 3:9, they set them upon the cliffs of the rocks, #Eze 24:7,8; they did wickedly as they could, and filled not only the earth with their abominations, but the heaven also with the noise and stench thereof, to the annoying of God’s senses and the vexing of his soul; more than any filthy drunkard doth those that are sober, with his hooting and spewing. See #Ge 4:10 18:20 Re 18:5. {See Trapp on "Ge 4:10"} {See Trapp on "Ge 18:20"} {See Trapp on "Re 18:5"}

Ver. 3. But Jonah rose up to flee, &c.] i.e. He made haste (more haste than good speed) to disobey God. Homo est inversus decalogus. The natural man standeth across to the will of God; "being abominable, disobedient, and to every good work reprobate," #Tit 1:16. Jonah was a spiritual man, and should have discerned all things, #1Co 2:15. But this spiritual man was mad, #Ho 9:7 (as they that are cured of a frenzy will yet have their freaks and frantic tricks sometimes), he cast off the yoke, and turned, for the time, renagade from the Lord; who met him at half turn, and brought him back again, though by weeping cross. Of the blackbird’s dung is made the lime whereby he is taken; so here. They that would excuse Jonah, and say that he sinned not, Dei scriptis iniuriam faciunt, saith Luther, they wrong the Scriptures. The best have their infirmities; as the snow-like swan hath black legs; and as no pomegranate is without some rotten grains. David saw such volumes of corruptions, and so many erratas in all that he did, that he cries out, "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults," #Ps 19:12.

To flee unto Tarshish] Tarsus, in Cilicia, St Paul’s country, #Ac 21:39 22:3, rather than the city Tunis, in Africa, as Vatablus will have it, or the East Indies, as others. Tarshish sometimes signifieth the main ocean, as #Ps 48:7 (whence some take it here for the sea), but that may be by a metonymy {a} of the adjunct; because Tarsus stood upon the ocean shore, and was a fit haven whence to hoist up sail into various countries.

From the presence of the Lord] Ab ante Domini, from the special and spiritual presence of God, wherein he had hitherto stood and ministered. For from God’s general presence, whereby he filleth all places, and is "not far from any one of us," #Ac 17:27 (not so far, surely, as the bark is from the tree, the skin from the flesh, or the flesh from the bones), Jonah knew he could not flee. Blind nature saw, and could say,

——“ quascunque accesseris eras,

Sub Iove semper eris.”——

God is a circle, said Empedocles, whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere. Why the prophet fled many causes are assigned by interpreters: as Amor patriae, timer humanus, his fear of the Ninevites, his love to his Israelites, his conceit that it would be to little purpose to preach to heathens, since he had prevailed so little at home. The very cause was that which we find #Jon 4:2, "I fled to Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God," &c., and I feared, lest I should thereupon be counted a false prophet. So much there is of self found in the best; who, when once they are got out of God’s way, they may run they know not whither, and return they know not when.

And went down to Joppa] Heb. Japho, a sea town in the tribe of Dan, #Jos 19:46; distant about fifty miles from Gathhepher (Jonas’s town, #2Ki 14:25), which was in the tribe of Zabulon, towards the lake of Tiberias. Sinners are no small painstakers. There is the same Hebrew and Greek word for wickedness and toilsomeness ( למע πονηρια). Would sinners be at the same pains for heaven that they are at for hell they could not lightly miss it.

And he found a ship going to Tarshish] They that have a mind to commit sin shall easily meet with an occasion. The tempter, who feeleth their pulses, and knoweth which way they will beat, will soon fit them a pennyworth. He hath a wedge of gold to set before Achan, a Cozbi before Zimri, Non causabitur, aptabitur. It is not to be excused or acommodated. Indeed it is the just man’s happiness that no evil shall happen to him, #Pr 12:21; that is (as Mercer interpreteth it) non parabitur ei, et dabitur occasio iniquitatis, God shall cut off from him the occasions of sin, remove stumblingblocks out of his way; either not lead him into temptation or not leave him in it.

So he paid the fare thereof] Forsan ut citius navim solveret (Mercer); perhaps to make the mariners hasten the more. Jonah might better have obeyed God, and gone to Nineveh on free cost. But wit is best when it is bought, they say. How many be there who perish at their own charge, as Phocion, the Athenian, paid for the poison that despatched him.

To go with them to Tarshish from the presence, &c.] i.e. Out of God’s blessing into the world’s warm sun. All wilful sinners are renegades from the Lord; factique sunt a corde suo fugitivi, saith Tertullian, fain they would also run (if they knew how or whither) from their own consciences. But if they belong to God, conscience shall be awakened to do its office; and they shall one day say with her, "I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi? call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me," #Ru 1:20,21.

{a} A figure of speech which consists in substituting for the name of a thing the name of an attribute of it or of something closely related. ŒD

Ver. 4. But the Lord sent out] Heb. cast forth, sc. out of his treasuries, #Ps 135:7, wherehence he sendeth at his pleasure mighty great winds which he (the only Aeolus) holdeth in his fist, hideth in his repositories, checketh them as he seeth good, weighs them in his hand, #Job 28:25; sends them out as his posts, makes them pace orderly, appoints them their motion, whether as messengers of mercy, #Nu 2:13 Ge 8:1 Ex 14:21, or as executioners of justice, #Ex 10:13 Job 1:19, hurting men’s houses, cattle, corn, persons; yea, hurrying and hurling the wicked into hell, #Job 27:21.

A great wind into the sea] Whither they that go down in ships see God’s great wonders in the deep. For "he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof," &c., #Ps 107:23-29. Did it not so in a marvellous manner here in 1588, and again in that other 1688, some few years since? Had not Jehoshaphat his ships broken at Eziongeber, #1Ki 22:48, and Charles V at Algiers, by two terrible tempests, which destroyed almost all that goodly fleet? The very mariners acknowledged this wind to be an effect of God’s justice, and therefore thought fit to implore his mercy; for

There was a mighty tempest in the sea] Which is troublesome of itself and never still, though sometimes it seems so; but by blustering and big winds is made out of measure troublesome ( Inhorruit mare. Virg.), such as was that λαιλαψ, #Lu 8:23, and that Euroclydon, #Ac 27:14; which Pliny calleth navigantium pestem, the mariner’s misery.

So that the ship was like to be broken] Heb. thought to be broken; Or. was in danger to be broken, εκινδυνευεν: the mariners made no other reckoning, they looked upon all as lost. God reserveth his holy hand for a dead lift usually, and loveth to help those that are forsaken of their hopes.

Ver. 5. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god] Forced by the present necessity, first these stout fellows were surprised with fear; neither could they look pale death in the face with blood in their cheeks. Death is the "king of terrors," #Job 18:14, Nature’s slaughter man, God’s curse, and helps purveyor. Next they "cried every man to his god." This was a lesson of Mother Nature’s teaching, sc. that there is a God, and that this God is to be called upon, and especially in distress. Those fools of the people that said there was no God could not (when hardly bestead) but look up to heaven and cry out for help. All "people will walk every one in the name of his god," #Mic 4:5. These mariners or saltmen םיחלמה (so called, either because they dealt in that commodity, or else because they rowed in the salt sea) had their several gods, according to their several countries, and these they now called upon, whom, till now, perhaps they little enough cared for; seamen are not overly pious for the most part. And yet of the Turkish mariners I have read, that every morning they salute the sun with their general shouts, and a priest saying a kind of Litany, every prayer ending with Macree Kichoon, that is, be angels present: the people answer in the manner of a shout Homin, that is, Amen. But it is remarkable that these in the text, though they cried every man to his god, yet, lest they might all mistake the true God, they awaken Jonah to call upon his God. This uncertainty, attending idolatry, caused the heathens to close their petitions with that general Diique Deaeque omnes (Serv. in Georg. lib. 1). But thirdly, as they cried to their gods, so (according to that rule, Ora et labora),

They cast forth the wares that were in the ship] Not doubting to sacrifice their goods to the service of their lives. "Skin for skin, and all that a man hath," &c.: so #Ac 27:18,19,38. Let us lose anything for eternal life, #Lu 16:8 9:25 Mt 18:8; suffer any hardship for heaven: we cannot buy it too dear. A stone will fall down to come to its own place, though it break itself in pieces by the way; so we, that we may get to our centre, which is upward.

But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship] Into the bottom of it: hither he had betaken himself before the storm; not considering that God had long hands to pull him out of his lurking holes, and bring him to judgment.

And he lay, and was fast asleep] It is likely that he had not slept many nights before (through care, fear, and grief, those three vultures that had been gnawing upon his inwards), and therefore now sleeps the more soundly. Or rather it was carnal security, his heart being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, #Heb 3:13. He had hardened his heart against God’s fear, and wilfully withdrawn from his obedience; hence this spiritual lethargy, this deep sleep in sin, not unlike that of the smith’s dog, whom neither the hammers above him nor the sparks of fire falling round about him can awaken: though the waterpot and spear be taken from the bolster, the secure person stirs not; though the house be on fire over his ears he starts not. Their senselessness God will cure in his Jonahs by sharp afflictions. Cold diseases must have hot and sharp remedies. The lethargy is best cured by a burning ague. God will let his presumptuous people see what it is to make wounds in their consciences, to try the preciousness of his balm: such may go mourning to their graves. And though with much ado they get assurance of pardon, yet their consciences will be still trembling, as David’s, #Ps 51, till God speaks farther peace, even as the water of the sea after a storm is not presently still, but moves and trembles a good while after the storm is over.

Ver. 6. So the shipmaster came unto him] God might have come himself with his drawn sword (as Baanah and Rechab did upon sleeping Ishbosheth) and taken off his head, or have sent an evil angel to arouse him in a fright, or have thrown him into the burning lake, as Agrippa did his dormouse {a} into the boiling caldron; but such is not God’s manner of dealing with his people, though he be deeply displeased. Correct them he will, but with judgment, not in his anger, lest they be brought to nothing, #Jer 10:24. Instruct them also he will ("Corrections of instruction are the way of life," #Pr 6:23) by one means or other, as he did here Jonah by a rude mariner, and as long before he had done Abraham and Sarah by Abimelech, a heathen prince, to shame them.

What meanest thou, O sleeper?] Heb. what is come to thee? #Ge 20:9. What a senseless stupidity hath seized thee! Are we all in danger, and dost thou sleep? as the philosopher (in danger likewise of shipwreck) said to one that made light of it,—Do we all stand upon our lives, and dost thou play the fool? ημεις παντες κινδυνευπμεν. και συ παιζεις; The spiritual sleeper, in like sort, may he be but warm in his own feathers, regards not the danger of the house. He is, saith one, a mere mute and cipher, a nullity in the world, a superfluity in the earth, Jeremiah’s rotten girdle, good for nothing, or like the branches of a vine, #Eze 15:3.

Arise, call upon thy God] For our gods will do nothing for us. The gods of the heathen are "silver and gold, the work of men’s hands; they have mouths, but speak not," &c., #Ps 115:4. But if God’s Israel trust in the Lord, he will be their help and their shield, #Jon 1:9. Forasmuch as there is none like unto him, #Jer 10:6; neither is "their rock as our Rock, our enemies themselves being judges," #De 32:31.

If so be that God will think upon us] The Chaldee hath it, will be merciful unto us; the Hebrew word signifieth will clear up, and behold us with a serene countenance; granting us a calm, and taking care that we perish not. So shall we acknowledge him to be Haelohim, that God by an excellency. Queen Elizabeth (that Regina Serenissima most unruffled Queen), for her merciful returning home certain Italians that were taken prisoners in the 1588 invasion, was termed Saint Elizabeth by some at Venice; who also affirmed to the English ambassador there, that though they were Papists, yet they would never pray to any other saint but that Saint Elizabeth.

{a} A sleepy or dozing person. ŒD

Ver. 7. And they said every one to his fellow] When Jonah had now prayed, and yet the tempest continued, (for we know that God heareth not sinners, #Joh 9:31; no, not a David or a Jonah, if he "regard iniquity in his heart," #Ps 66:18; how should the plaster prevail while the weapon remains in the wound?) they resolve to try another course for the safeguard of their lives. Man is ζωον φιλοζωον, a creature that would fain live, said Aesop; and "what man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good," saith David; whereunto Austin answereth, Quis vitam non vult? who would not be master of such a happiness?

Come and let us cast lots] And so put the matter into God’s hands, #Pr 16:33. He disposeth of lottery, so it be rightly undertaken, not superstitiously, curiously, rashly; but as trusting in God, and not tempting him.

That we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us] Some extraordinary cause they knew there was of this extraordinary tempest. Sinful men strike not their dogs, much less their children, without a cause. A bee stings not till provoked; neither doth God punish his creatures till there be no other remedy, #2Ch 36:16. Good, therefore, is the counsel of the prophet, #La 3:39,40, "Why is living man sorrowful, a man for the punishment of his sin Let us search and try our ways" (find out the sin that God strikes at), "and turn again to the Lord"; turn and live.

So they cast lots] They should have also prayed, as #Ac 1:24 6:6; saying as Saul, #1Sa 14:41, "Give a perfect lot." Wicked men also are bound to pray, #Ps 14:4; but although they do not, God can get himself glory by their profane lottery; as he did by Nebuchadnezzar’s, #Eze 21:20,21.

And the lot fell upon Jonah] Secret sins will come out at length, and be brought into judgment, #Ec 12:14. Saeculi laetitia est impunita nequitia (Augustin). Surely the bitterness of death is past, said Agag, but he found it otherwise, #1Sa 15:32. Jonah thought himself out of the reach of God’s rod, &c. Wicked men’s faults shall be written in their foreheads, and they forced to answer for all at last, with flames about their ears.

Ver. 8. Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause, &c.] He confessed not till urged and necessitated. Sin gags people, and prompts them to hide their faults, as Adam; or at least to mince, extenuate, shift them upon other persons and things, as Eve. Sin and shifting came into the world together; and Satan, that old manslayer, knowing that there is no way to purge the soul but upwards, holds the lips close, that the heart may not disburden itself: God, by this means, is often put to his proof, and must bring the malefactor to trial; who, refusing ordinary trial, must therefore be pressed, #Jer 2:35.

What is thine occupation?] For that thou hast one we take it for granted. At Athens every man was, once a year, at least, to give account to the judges by what art or trade he maintained himself. By Mahomet’s law the Grand Signior himself must use some manual trade; Solyman the Magnificent made arrowheads; Mahomet the Great horn rings for archers, &c. That which the mariners here inquire after is, whether Jonah’s occupation be honest and lawful? whether he "laboured the thing that was good," #Eph 4:28. For if any man overreach or oppress his brother in any matter, by the use of any ill arts, he shall be sure to find that "the Lord is the avenger of all such," #1Th 4:6; though haply they lie out of the walk of human justice, or come not under man’s cognizance.

And whence comest thou?] Art thou not of an accursed country? and is not thy people a people of God’s wrath, as England was in the time of the sweating sickness, pursuing the English wherever they came; which made them like tyrants, both feared and avoided by all nations? How the Jews are to this day hated and shunned as an execrable people is known to all.

What is thy country? and of what people art thou?] Notanda brevitas, saith Jerome here, note the brevity of these questions, nothing short of those in Virgil so much admired (Aen. viii. 112).

——“ iuvenes quae causa subegit

Ignotas tentare vias? qua tenditis? inquit,

Quod genus? unde domo? pacemne hue fertis, an arma?”

Note also here, how these Pagans proceed not to execution till they have fully inquired into the matter, This was far better than that ugly custom of some people in Europe, mentioned by Aeneas Sylvius: that if any one among them be suspected of theft or the like crime he is presently taken and hanged. Then three days after they examine the business; and if the party be found guilty they suffer his body there to hang till it rot down; or, if otherwise, they bury him in the churchyard, and keep a funeral feast at the public charge.

Ver. 9. And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew] i.e. A true believer, as was Eber the patriarch, #Ge 10:21, and, after him, Abram the Hebrew, as he is called, #Ge 14:13. This name of Hebrews, as it was the first title given to Abraham and his seed, so it endureth one of the last, #2Co 11:22 Php 3:5; Epistle to the Hebrews, title.

And I fear the Lord God of heaven] That is mine occupation; "I serve God with my spirit in the gospel of his Son," as Paul hath it, #Ro 1:9. Every faithful minister is servant to the King of heaven, #Ac 27:23 (this the devil could not deny, #Ac 16:16,17); neither is he of his meaner or inferior servants, of his underlings, but of the noblest employment; ministers are his stewards, ambassadors, paranymphs, or spokesmen, &c., and this is their occupation, or their work; far beyond that of Solomon’s servants.

Which hath made the sea and the dry land] This troublesome sea that now so threateneth you, and that dry land which you would so fain recover. These, with all their contents, are his creatures; neither did he make them, and then leave them to fate or fortune, as a carpenter leaves the house he hath built to others, or a shipwright the ship; but he ordereth and ruleth them at his pleasure, and will unmake all again rather than have his people lack help in one season, #Ps 124:8 134:3. This was part of Jonah’s confession, and but part of it; for he told them (no doubt) how ill he had dealt with this great and good God, running away by stealth from his Master’s service, and detracting his yoke, and that, therefore, he was justly apprehended and adjudged to death. To this purpose was Jonah’s confession, quae ei salutis fuit exordium, saith Mercer, which was the beginning of his safety and salvation. Now his hard heart is broken, and his dumb mouth opened, not only to confess his offence, but to aggravate it; in that being not only a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a member of the true Church, but a prophet, a doctor in Israel, he should deal so perversely and perfidiously. It is a sweet happiness when sin swells as a toad in a man’s eyes, and he can freely confess it in the particulars, and with utmost aggravation; laying open "all his transgressions in all his sins," as Moses phraseth it, #Le 16:21. Affliction sanctified will bring a soul to this, as here it did the prophet; like herein to that helve Elisha cast into the water, that fetched up the iron that was in the bottom.

Ver. 10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid] Heb. with great fear; when once they had heard the business, and weighed the particulars, of his message to Nineveh, of his miscarriage, and of his present misery, together with the danger that themselves were in for his sake; how much more for their own, as being conscious to themselves of far more and greater sins than Jonah had to answer for. This put the mariners into a great fright; and as all fear hath torment, they could not be at quiet till they had further questioned him, saying:

Why hast thou done this?] Lo, he that would not be subject to God’s command is now liable to the censures, conviction, and condemnation of rude barbarous men; which, being humbled in the sense of his sin, he doth patiently endure without grudging. Daneus’s note here is, that concerning themselves and their own sins against God these good fellows speak nothing, whatever they think; but demand of the prophet, why hast thou done this? as if he were the only misdoer.

Because he had told them] As willing now to give glory to God and take shame to himself: this is the property of a true penitentiary. See #Ps 51:1 title (where David stands to do penance in a white sheet, as it were), and Augustin’s Confessions. Hypocrites deal with their souls as some do with their bodies; when their beauty is decayed they desire to hide it from themselves by false glasses and from others by painting: so do they their sins from themselves by false glosses and from others by excuses. But as the prisoner on the rack tells all; and as things written with the juice of lemons when held to the fire are made legible; so when God brings men into straits, when he roasteth them in the fire of his wrath, then, if ever, they will confess against themselves, and so give glory to God, #Jos 7:19, by putting themselves into the hand of justice, in hope of mercy.

Ver. 11. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee?] q.d. Thou art a prophet of the Lord, and knowest how he may be pacified. Thou art also the party whom he pursueth: say what we shall do to thee to save ourselves from thy death, that even gapeth for us? from this sea, which else will soon swallow us up? for the sea worketh and is tempestuous: so Kimchi readeth the text; making these last also to be the words of the mariners. Thou seest that there is no hope, if thine angry God be not appeased. "Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods?" #1Sa 4:8. If the sea be thus rageful and dreadful, as #Jon 1:15, if it thus work and swell more and more, as we see it doth, thereby testifying that it can now no longer defer to execute God’s anger, tell us what we shall do in this case and strait. What?

Ver. 12. And he said unto them] More by God’s inward revelation than by discourse of reason; not as rashly offering himself to death, but as freely submitting to the mind of God, signified by the lot that fell upon him, calling for him to punishment.

Take me up, and cast me forth unto the sea] Eximia fides, saith Mercer. Before we had his repentance, testified by his confession with aggravation; here we have his faith, whereby he triumpheth over death in his most dreadful representations (Take me up, saith he, with a present mind and good courage), as also his charity, whereby he chose rather to die, as a piacular {a} person, than to cause the death of so many men for his fault. Like unto this was that of Nazianzen, who desired, Jonah-like, to be cast into the sea himself so be it all might be calm in the public; that of Athanasius, who by his sweat and tears, as by the bleeding of a chaste vine, cured the leprosy of that tainted age; that of Ambrose, who was far more solicitous of the Church’s welfare than of his own; that of Chrysostom, who saith, That to seek the public good of the Church, and to prefer the salvation of others before a man’s private profit, is the most perfect canon of Christianism, the very top gallant of religion, the highest point and pitch of piety. In #1Co 11 τουτο ορος ηκριβωμενος αυτη η κορυφη η ανωτατω.

So shall the sea be calm unto you] Not else: for I have forfeited my life by my disobedience; and my repentance (though true, and so, "to salvation never to be repented of," #2Co 7:10) comes too late, in regard of temporal punishments; as did likewise that of Moses, #De 3:26, and of David, #2Sa 12:10, such is the venomous nature of sin in the saints (it is treachery, because against covenant), and such is the displeasure of God upon it, that he chastiseth his here more than any other sinners, #La 4:6 Da 9:12, and whoever else escape, they shall be sure of it, #Am 3:2. The word here rendered calm signifieth silent; for the sea, when troubled, roareth hideously, so that the roaring of the devils at the painful preconceit of their last doom of damnation is set forth by a word that is taken from the tossing of the sea and the noise thereupon, #Jas 2:19, "The devils believe and tremble," or shiver and shudder with horrible yellings (φρισσουσι. φριξ, est maria agitatio. Eustath. in Hom. Iliad).

For I know that for my sake this tempest is upon you] If Jonah were a type of Christ in that being cast into the sea a calm followed; yet herein he differed, that Christ suffered not for his own offences, but "bore our sins in his own body on the tree," and died, "the just for the unjust," #1Pe 2:24 3:18.

{a} Making expiation or atonement; expiatory. ŒD

Ver. 13. Nevertheless the men rowed] Heb. digged: for so they that row seem to do with their oars as with spades. Hence also the Latin poets say, that boatmen cut, plough, furrow the waters (Virg. Aeneid.), Vastum sulcavimus aequor. Infindunt pariter sulcos. The Seventy render it παρεβιαζοντο, they did their utmost endeavour, with violence, to bring the ship to shore, and to save Jonah: and not as those bloody emperors, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, who took delight in the punishment of offenders, and used to come early in the morning into the marketplace to behold their executions. Non nisi coactus, said that better emperor, when he was to subscribe a sentence of death; and, Oh, that I could not write mine own name ( Utinam literas nescirem), said another upon the like occasion.

But they could not] They did but strive against the stream, for the Lord had otherwise determined it; and Voluntas Dei necessitas rei, who hath resisted his will?

For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.] As #Jon 1:11. Praesentemque viris intentant omnia mortem.

Ver. 14. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord] Not unto their false gods, but unto the true Jehovah of whom they had learned something by what they had seen and heard from Jonah. Va torpori nostro.

We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee] A most ardent and affectionate prayer. A natural man may pray from the bottom of his heart, out of a deep sense of his wants; but he cannot give thanks from the bottom of his heart; because void of the love of God and joy of faith. Danaeus noteth from these words that judges ought to pray before they pass sentence of death upon any.

Let us not perish for this man’s life] Which we take away, but full sore against our wills. Wilful murder was ever accounted a heinous crime among the heathens also. Abel’s innocent blood had as many tongues as drops, to cry to heaven against Cain, #Ge 4:10, "The voice of thy brother’s blood"; and #2Ki 9:26, "Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth." Murder ever bleeds fresh in the eye of God; and to him many years, yea, that eternity that is past, is but yesterday. Full well, then, did these men so earnestly deprecate the guilt of innocent blood, which they knew would lie and light heavily.

And lay not upon us innocent blood] Innocent as to us; for he hath done us no hurt, but much good by his piety and patience; whence it is that we are so loth to part with him, after this sort especially.

For thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleaseth thee] Thou hast appointed him to this death, and now callest for him, as we easily collect by the circumstances. Sic quicquid superi voluere, per actum est (Ovid. Metamor. l. 8).

Ver. 15. So they took up Jonah] Not against his will, but in a sort offering himself to condign punishment. The mariners had tried all ways to save him, till they saw they must either destroy him or be destroyed with him. So deal many with their beloved sins, which they are loth to mortify, they see they must either kill or be killed, #Ro 8:13; either turn from them to God, or burn for ever in hell. Jonah’s charity is exemplary, who yielded to perish alone rather than to have others perish with him and for him; the devil and his imps desire to draw company the same way with themselves; and say, as that wretch of old, When I die, may the earth be all fired, εμου θαναντος γαια μιχθητω τυρι εμου δε ζωντος dixit Caligula .

And cast him forth into the sea] Thus dealeth God by his servant Jonah; formerly faithful in his office, and able thereunto, and therefore sent to Nineveh. "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth," #Pr 11:31; here they are sure of their payment, neither can all their good deeds bear out one prepensed wickedness of a lesser fault that lies unrepented for, as were easy to instance in Moses, Miriam, David, and others. And all this proceeds from love displeased.

And the sea ceased from raging] Heb. stood from its wrath, or indignation. Nee marls ira manet (Ovid. Metam.). Nec horret iratum mare (Horat. lib. Epod.). The sea having found what it sought for, and now possessed of the prisoner it pursued, resteth quiet and content; Vide hic mare et disce sapere, saith one; see the sea here, and learn obedience to thy Creator, since winds, waves, and all are at his beck and check. See #Mt 8:26.

Ver. 16. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly] Heb. with a great fear. They feared before, #Jon 1:10, with a natural fear; but now they feared Jehovah. They began to bear all awful respect to the Divine majesty, of whose power and goodness they were by this miracle clearly convinced, and, as it may seem, to the true faith effectually converted.

For they offered a sacrifice to the Lord] They sacrificed spiritual sacrifices presently (that holocaust of themselves, #Ro 12:1, that broken heart that lieth low and heareth all that God saith, giving thanks to his name, #Heb 13:15), and resolved to cover God’s altar at Jerusalem upon their safe arrival, as the Chaldee here paraphraseth.

And made vows] That the true God should be their God (as Jacob, the father of vows, promised, #Ge 28:21), and that they would bestow cost on the temple, on the poor saints, to feed and clothe them, as #Isa 23:18.

Ver. 17. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish] A whale, #Mt 12:40, which is a great fish indeed. Pliny tells of one taken that was six hundred feet in length, and three hundred and sixty in breadth; when they swim and show themselves above water, annare insulas putes, saith the same author, you would think them to be so many islands. So many mountains, saith another; who also addeth, that when they grow old they grow to that size and weight, that they stay long in a place. Insomuch as ex collectis et condensatis pulveribus frutices erumpere cernantur, the dust and filth gathered upon their backs seems to be an island, which while shipmen are mistaken and think to land at, they incur a great deal of danger (Sphinx Philid.).

Such a great fish God prepared] Either at first, when in creating of whales, creavit vastitares et stupores, as one saith; or he now commanded this great fish to be ready to ship Jonah to the shore, and to afford him an oratory in the mean while.

And Jonah was in the belly of the fish] Where interpreters note a concurrence of these four miracles. 1. That he was not there consumed, but that the concoctive faculty of the fish’s stomach was so long time kept from doing its office. 2. That he could in such a close prison breathe and live without the common use of air and light. 3. That he was not killed up with intolerable stench in so loathsome an outhouse. 4. That he could there frame such an excellent prayer, or rather song of thanksgiving; for Jonah was the true Arion whom the poets feign to have been a minstrel cast into the sea by the mariners, and saved by a dolphin.

Three days and three nights] Part of them at least; as Christ was in the grave, #Mt 12:40, where, in the history of Jonah, he descrieth the mystery of his own death, burial, and resurrection; teaching us thereby to search the Scriptures, to search them to the bottom (ερευνατε); as those that dig for gold content not themselves with the first or second ore that offers itself, but search on till they have all. The Rabbis have a saying that there is a mountain of sense hangs upon every apex of the word of God. And so great is the depth of the Holy Scriptures, saith Augustin, that I could profit daily in the knowledge thereof, though I should set myself to search them from my childhood to decrepit old age, at best leisure, with utmost study and a far better wit.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God] i.e. Praised God with this Canticum eucharisticum, this gratulatory song, as Tremellius calleth it. That he prayed in the ship, in the sea, in the whale’s belly, we doubt not; but that he chiefly intendeth to show his thankfulness for the return of prayers and the sweet support he felt in the whale’s belly we do as little doubt, see #Jon 2:2,6,7; yea, that this was the substance (though now better methodized) of what he prayed and praised in the bowels of the fish we have cause to believe from this very verse; and therefore also his deliverance is set down, #Jon 2:10, after his doxology. The word here rendered prayed signifieth also, sometimes, to give thanks, as #1Sa 2:2; and who knows not that thanksgiving is a special part of prayer? This therefore is prayer. Jonah having prayed, and perceiving that he was heard, and by the goodness of God preserved safe in body and sound in mind, he grows "strong in faith, giving glory to God," #Ro 4:20, and being fully persuaded that he should yet walk before him again in the land of the living.

Out of the fish’s belly] Where, though he might seem buried alive, and free among the dead, yet he enjoyed God’s gracious presence, and those strong consolations that made him live in the very mouth of death, and say in effect, as blessed Bradford did, I thank God more for this prison and for this dark dungeon than for any parlour, yea, than of any pleasure that ever I had; for in it I find God my most sweet God always.

Ver. 2. And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction] His lips did not move in affliction, like a creaking door or a new cart wheel, with murmuring and mutinying against God and men; he set not his mouth against heaven (as the howling wolf when hunger bitten), neither did his tongue walk through the earth, cursing the day of his birth, and cutting deep into the sides of such as were means of his misery, #Ps 73:9. But putting his mouth in the dust, if so be there might be hope, he cried by reason of his affliction, #La 3:29. The time of affliction is the time of supplication; no time like that for granting of suits, #Zec 13:9. God’s afflicted may have what they will of him then, such are his fatherly compassions to his sick children; he reserveth his best comforts for the worst times, and then speaketh to the hearts of his people when he hath brought them into the wilderness, #Ho 2:13. This Jonah experimented, and therefore said, "I cried out of mine affliction unto the Lord."

“ Ad Dominum afflicto de pectore suspirando.”

And he heard me] How else am I alive amidst so many deaths? Here is a visible answer, a real return: O, "blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me," #Ps 66:20. Surely as the cloud, which riseth out of the earth many times in thin and insensible vapours, falleth down in great and abundant showers; so our prayers, which ascend weak and narrow, return with a full and enlarged answer. This was but a pitiful poor prayer that Jonah here made, as appears #Jon 2:4; and so was that of David, #Ps 31:22, "For I said in mine haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee." It would be wide with us if God should answer the best of us according to our prayers, yea, though well watered with tears; since, Ipsae lacrymae sint lacrymabiles, we had need to weep over our tears, sigh over our sobs, mourn over our griefs. Jonah was so taken with this kindness from the Lord his God that he repeats it and celebrates it a second time.

Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice] The whale’s belly he calleth hell’s belly, because horrid and hideous, deep and dismal. Thence he cried, as David did, De profundis, from the depths, and was heard and delivered. Yea, had hell itself closed her mouth upon a praying Jonah, it could not long have held him, but must have vomited him up. A mandamus commission from God will do it at any time, #Ps 44:4, and what cannot faithful prayer have of God? there is a certain omnipotence in it, said Luther.

Ver. 3. For thou hadst cast me into the deep] A graphic description of his woeful condition, which yet he remembereth now as waters that are past, and is thankful to his Almighty deliverer: see the like in David, #Ps 116:3, and learn of these and other saints to acknowledge the uttermost extremity of a calamity after we are delivered out of it. For hereby thy judgment will be the better instructed and the more convinced; thine heart also will be the more enlarged to admire, and thy mouth the wider opened to celebrate the power, wisdom, and mercy of God in thy deliverance. As if this be not done, God will be provoked either to inflict heavier judgments, or else to cease to smite thee any more with the stripes of a father, and to give thee up for a lost child.

For thou hadst cast me into the deep] Not the mariners, but thou didst it, and therefore there was no averting or avoiding it. Thou hadst cast me with a force, as a stone out of a sling, or as that mighty angel, #Re 18:21, that took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence," &c.

In the midst of the seas] Heb. in the heart of the seas; so #Mt 12:40, "So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." And #De 4:11, we read of the heart of heaven, that is, the middle of it, as the heart sitteth in the midst of the body as king of that Isle of Man. Now, if it were so grievous to be cast into the main sea, what shall it be to be hurled into hell by such a hand, and with such a force into that bottomless gulf, whence nothing was ever yet buoyed up again?

And the floods compassed me about] Aquarum confluges, the sea, whence all floods or rivers issue, and whereto they return (Homer calleth the ocean ποταμον, a river, by the figure meiosis, {a} Ποταμοιο ρεεθρα ωκεανου. Iliad. xiv.). Danaeus here noteth that out of that gulf of the sea, which of Plato is called Tartarus, that is, hell, the waters do flow into the veins of the earth (as it is, #Ec 1:7), losing their saltness in the passage. Here Jonah cried out, as #Ps 69:1,2, "Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into the deep waters, where the floods overflow me." It was only his faith that held him up by the chin; and, like blown feathers, bore him aloft all waters.

All thy billows and thy waves passed over me] All; so it seemed to Jonah, that God had poured out all his displeasure upon him; but he suffereth not his whole wrath to arise against his people; neither remembereth iniquity for ever. Thy billows or surges; not the sea’s, but thine. God seemed to fight against Jonah with his own hand. David likewise in a desertion complains that all God’s waves and floods were gone over him, #Ps 42:7. In this case (for it may be any one’s case) let us do as Paul and his company did (in that dismal tempest, #Ac 27:20, when they saw neither sun nor star for many days and nights together), cast anchor of hope, even beyond hope; and then wait and wish for day. God will appear at length, and all shall clear up; he will deliver our souls from the nethermost hell.

{a} A figure of speech by which the impression is intentionally conveyed that a thing is less in size, importance, etc., than it really is. ŒD

Ver. 4. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight] Thus those straits brought him to these disputes of despair, as they did likewise David, #Ps 31:22, the Church in the Lamentations, #La 4:22, and others, apt enough in affliction to have hard conceits of God and heavy conceits of themselves. While men look at things present, while they live by sense only, it must need be with them as with a house without pillars, tottering with every blast; or as a ship without anchor, tossed with every wave. They must therefore thrust Hagar out of doors, and set up Sarah; silence their reason, and exalt faith, as did Jonah here; "Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight." Here you may take him up for a dead man; here he inclineth somewhat to that of Cain, #Ge 4:13,14, and surely they that go down to this pit of despair, as Hezekiah speaketh of the grave, #Isa 38:17, cannot hope for God’s truth as long as there they stay.

Yet I will look again toward thine holy temple] Here he recollects and recovers himself; as the same soul may successively doubt and believe, not simultaneously; and faith, where it is right, will at length out wrestle diffidence, and make a man more than a conqueror, even a triumpher. When sense saith such a thing will not be, reason saith, It cannot be, faith gets above and saith, Yea, but it shall be; what talk you to me of impossibilities, I shall yet (as low as I am, and as forlorn) look again towards God’s holy temple of heaven; yea, that here on earth, where God is sincerely served, and whereto the promises are annexed. Faith is by one fitly compared to the cork upon the net; though the lead on the one sinks it down, yet the cork on the other keeps it up in the water. The faithful soon check themselves for their doubtings and despondency, as Jonah here; as David chides David, #Ps 43:5; and as Paul saith of himself and his fellows, that they were staggering, but not wholly sticking, #2Co 4:8.

Ver. 5. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul] That is, usque ad animae deliquium, till I laboured for life, and was as good as gone.

The depth closed me round about] {See Trapp on "Jon 2:3"} and further observe, that God’s dear children may fall into desperate and deadly dangers, see #Ps 18:3 88:3 116:3. And this for, 1. Prevention, 2. Purgation, 3. Probation, 4. Preparations to further both mercies and duties. Let us not therefore censure ourselves or others as hated of God, because greatly distressed; but encourage ourselves in them, as did David at Ziklag, #1Sa 30:6. The right hand of the Lord shall change all this.

“ Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur.”

The weeds were wrapped about mine head] Alga as Alligando. The weeds which the fish had devoured, or whereunto the fish, wherein I was, had dived and lain down among them. Or this might befall Jonah in the bottom of the sea, before the fish had swallowed him; for weeds easily wrap about those that swim, or are drowned.

Ver. 6. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains] That is, of the promontories or rocks of the sea, where the waters are deepest. Thus Mercer after Kimchi. "The channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered," #Ps 18:15. The mountains are said to be under water, #Pr 8:25, because their foundations are there placed.

The earth with her bars was about me for ever] As if resolved there to keep me close prisoner; that though the fish had disgorged me, yet I should never have got to land. The shores are set by God as bars to keep the sea within his bounds, #Job 38:8,10,11 Jer 5:22. Here then all the creatures seemed to set against poor Jonah, and (which was more than all) the Creator too: so that he might sigh and say, as in the poet (Martial).

“ In me omnis terraeque aviumque marisque rapina est,

Forsitan et coeli”

Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption] i.e. From the place where I was likely to have lain and rotted. Cum duplicantur lateres, venit Moses: when things are at the worst God appeareth, as it were out of an engine, εκ της μηχανης. In the mount will the Lord be seen, #Eze 37:11 2Ki 19:3; he stays so long sometimes that he hardly "finds faith on earth," #Lu 18:8, and yet comes at last to the relief of his poor people; viz. when they are ripe and ready for it. He is a God of judgment, he knows how and when to deal forth his favours; and even waiteth to be gracious, #Isa 30:18 28:21.

O Lord my God] sc. by the mean and merit of thy Son, in whom alone it is that thou, Lord, art my God, and that I can call thee Abba, Father. It is well observed by an interpreter, that in this short history of Jonah are all things contained which may make to the sound and saving knowledge of God and his will, of ourselves also and our duties.

Ver. 7. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord] And could say, as the Church in #Isa 63:16, when at lowest, "Doubtless thou art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from everlasting." As there is in the creatures an instinct of nature to do after their kind; so there. is of grace in the saints to run to God. "Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early," #Isa 26:8,9. "O Lord," saith Habakkuk, #Hab 1:12, "art not thou from everlasting my God, and mine Holy One?" It was a bold question, but God approves and assents to it in a gracious answer ere they went farther: "We shall not die" (say they abruptly), "O Lord, thou hast ordained them" (the Chaldeans) "for judgment"; but us only for chastisement. Here was the triumph of their faith, and this was that which held up Jonah’s hope, though with wonderful difficulty, held head above water. He remembered "the years of the right hand of the Most High," #Ps 77:10; he called to mind his songs in the night season, #Jon 2:6, his former experience, a just ground of his present confidence. He remembered the Lord, his power and goodness, those two pillars, the Jachin and the Boaz, that support faith; and this fetched him again when ready to faint. "I had even fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living," #Ps 27:13.

And my prayer came in unto thee] q.d. Though I was so faint I could scarcely utter a prayer, yet thou hearkenedst and heardest, as #Mal 3:16; thou madest hard shift to hear (as I may say); thine ears were in my prayers, as St Peter hath it, #1Pe 3:12; thou feltest my breathing, when no voice could be heard, #La 3:56; thou heldest not "thy peace at my tears," #Ps 39:12, quando fletu agerem non afflatu; yea, thou heardest the voice of mine affliction, #Ge 16:11.

Into thine holy temple] Whether we take it to be the temple at Jerusalem (a type of Christ), Jonah’s prayer was accepted for Christ’s sake; and proved to no less purpose, though made in the whale’s belly, than if he had been pouring it out in God’s holy temple. Or if we understand it to be heaven, the habitation of God’s holiness, and of his glory, his prayers were come up thither for a memorial before the Almighty, #Ac 10:4, and like pillars of incense pierced into his presence, #So 3:6, neither would they away without their errand, but lay at God’s feet till he should command deliverance out of Zion.

Ver. 8. They that observe lying vanities] That listen to sense and reason in matters of God, and make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, as Jonah had done to his cost, till, having paid for his learning, he descried them all to be but "lying vanities," or most vain vanities, empty nothings.

Forsake their own mercy] Are miserable by their own election, because sinners, in a special manner, "against their own souls," as were Korah and his accomplices, #Nu 15:38; as was Pope Silvester, who gave his soul to the devil for seven years’ enjoyment of the popedom; and as are all those wilful wicked persons, that refusing to be reformed, and hating to be healed, choose to spend the span of this life after the ways of their own hearts, though they thereby perish for ever. These are those fools of the people, that prefer an apple before paradise, a mess of pottage before the inheritance of heaven, their swine before their Saviour, turning their backs upon those blessed and bleeding embracements of his, and cruelly cutting the throats of their own poor souls by an impenitent continuance in sin; so losing, for a few bitter sweet pleasures, or paltry profits in this vale of tears, for an inch of time, that fulness of felicity at God’s right hand, through all eternity. It is written of them who tame the tiger, that when they have taken away the young one, knowing that presently they shall be pursued by the old tigress, they set lookingglasses in the way by which they flee; whereunto when she cometh and seeth some representation of herself, she lingereth about them a good space, deceived by the shadow, and detained in a vain hope to recover the young again; meanwhile the hunter most speedily posteth away with his prey. Likewise deals Satan with the men of this world (saith mine author); he casts before them the deceitful lusts of profit, pleasure, and preferment, the worldling’s trinity, those "lying vanities," being none other than shadows and semblances of good; yet are men so delighted with these that they dote about them, having no care to pursue the enemy for recovery of that image of God, the Divine nature, that Satan hath beguiled them from. He setteth them to the tree of knowledge, that they may not taste of the tree of life. He putteth out their eyes with the dust of covetousness, and shutteth their ears against the instructions of life, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and God should heal them, #Mt 13:15. In all which there is not anything more to be lamented than this, that people should "love to have it so," #Jer 5:31; be active in their own utter undoing, #Ho 13:9; wittingly and willingly forsake God, the fountain of living waters, their own mercies, as he is here called, and elsewhere, #Ps 144:2, and hew themselves out "cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water," #Jer 2:13.

Ver. 9. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving] q.d. Let others do as they think good; let them make a match with mischief till they have enough of it; let them walk till they have wearied themselves in the ways of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes; but let them know (I speak it by woeful experience) that for all these things God will bring them to judgment, #Ec 11:9. The best that can come of sin is repentance: and that is not in man’s power but in God’s gift, #2Ti 2:25. If he had not melted my hard heart, and brought me back to himself with a strong hand, I had pined away in mine iniquities, and perished for ever. But now having been so miraculously delivered from so great a death, "I will sacrifice unto the Lord with the voice of thanksgiving"; I will set up my note and sing aloud unto God my Saviour, who hath thus beyond all desert delivered such a miserable wretch, rebel, and regegade as myself.

I will sacrifice] Heb. I will slay, sc. those birds and beasts in use for feasts and sacrifices at Jerusalem,

with the voice of thanksgiving] Heb. of confession, that is, I will confess and acknowledge God to be what he is, to do what he doth, and to give what he giveth. Now to offer a sacrifice at such a confession or thanksgiving added much to the solemnity thereof; and made it more honourable in itself, and more acceptable to God. To these gratulatory sacrifices the word slaying is attributed, as hero, to show that even in gratulation expiation must be made; and that by the blood and sacrifice of Christ all our offerings are accepted in heaven.

I will pay that I have vowed] Not my general vow only as a covenanter, to devote myself to his fear and service all my days; but those particular, personal, voluntary vows made in my distress; such as was that of Jacob, #Ge 28:20; Hannah, #1Sa 1:11; David, #Ps 132:1,2, &c. In affliction men are wondrously apt to promise great matters, if they may but be delivered. See #Ps 78:36. Pliny, in an epistle to one of his friends, that desired rules from him how to order his life aright; I will, saith he, give you one rule, that shall be instead of a thousand: Ut tales esse perseveremus sani, quales nos futuros esse profitemur infirmi: That you be sure to be the same when well that you vowed to be when you were sick. But this is few men’s care. See #Jer 34:10,11. Sons of Belial break these bonds as Samson did the green withes, and cast away those cords from them; if they could, at least; being worse herein than those mariners, #Jon 1:16, than Saul, that made great conscience of violating his vow, #1Sa 14:21, than Turks and Papists, who are superstitiously strict this way. Jonah knew it to be as bad, if not worse, than perjury, to vow and not to perform, #Nu 30:3, and that God is the avenger of all such, #De 23:21. He therefore, not merely for fear of punishment, but chiefly for hatred of that sin, saith,

I will pay that I have vowed] The Hebrew word Ashallemah seemeth to imply two things. First, that his vow till paid was incomplete, it was an imperfect thing; the better part of it was yet wanting. Next, that till that chare were done he could not be at peace within himself, he could not be quiet; for vows are debts; and debts, till they be paid, are a burden to an honest mind, and do much disease it.

Salvation is of the Lord] Salus omnimoda, as the Hebrew word Jeshugnathah (having one letter more than ordinary in it) importeth; all manner of salvation, full and plentiful deliverance, "is of the Lord"; who is therefore called, the "God of salvation," unto whom belong the issues from death, #Ps 68:20. A quo vera salus non aliunde venit. This Jonah speaketh, as he doth all else in this holy canticle, not by reading, or by rote, but out of his own feeling and good experience; his whole discourse was dug out of his own breast, as it is said of that most excellent 119th Psalm, that it is made up altogether of experiments; and it therefore hath verba non legenda sed vivenda, words not so much to be read as lived, as one said once of it. Dives thought that if one went from the dead to warn his wicked brethren they would never be able to resist such powerful rhetoric. Behold, here is Jonah raised from the dead, as it were, and warning people to arise, and stand up from dead courses and companies, that Christ may give them light; why do they not then get up and be doing at it, that the Lord may be with them? Shall not the men of Nineveh rise up in judgment with this evil generation, and condemn them, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, #Mt 12:41, but these do not, though they have may Jonahs, that both preach and practise, non verbis solum praedicantes sed et exemplis, as Eusebius saith Origen did, that live sermons, and not teach them only?

Ver. 10. And the Lord spake unto the fish] He spake the word and it was done: he is the great centurion of the world, that saith to his creature, Do this, and he doth it. Dei dicere est facere (Aug.). Yea, he is the great, great Induperator, {Imperator} to whom everything saith, Iussa sequi tam velle mihi quam posse necesse esse (Lucan.): I am wholly at thy beck and check. Jonah spake to God, and God to the fish. It may be said of faithful prayer, that it can do whatsoever God himself can do; since he is pleased to yield himself, overcome by the prayers of his people, and to say unto them cordially, as Zedekiah did to his courtiers colloquingly, The king is not he that can deny you anything. Prayer is of that power that it can open the doors of leviathan, as we see here (which yet is reckoned as a thing not feasible, #Job 41:14), yea of the all devouring grave, #Heb 11:35. If the Lord, pricked on by the prayer of his people, set in hand to save them, and shall "say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth," #Isa 43:6, they shall come amain, and none shall be able to hinder them; "Come, therefore" (with those good souls in Hosea, who had smarted for their folly, as well as Jonah), "and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight," #Ho 6:1,2. A time we must have to be in the fire, in the fish’s belly, as in God’s nurturing house; but he will take care that we be not there overly long; what is two or three days to eternity? Hold out, faith and patience: "Yet a very little, little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry," #Heb 10:37.

And it vomited up Jonah upon the dry land] And here death was defeated and wiped; it was much more so when it had swallowed up Christ; and little dreamt that itself should have been thereby "swallowed up in victory." Quantum in devoratione mors laetata est, tantum luxit in vomitu (Jerome). But then was fulfilled that of the prophet, O death, I will be thy death. And as there, so here, in a proportion, and as a type, omnia iam inversa, saith Mercer, all things are turned the other way. Before the fish was an instrument of death; now of life, and serves Jonah for a ship to bring him to dry land. This fish useth not to come near the shore, but to sport in the great waters; howbeit now he must, by special command, "vomit up Jonah upon the dry land." "Why then should it be thought a thing incredible with any that God should raise the dead?" #Ac 26:8. The sea shall surely give up the dead that were in it; and death and hell deliver up the dead that were in them; and they shall be judged every man according to his works, #Re 20:13. This some of the heathens believed; as Zoroaster, Theopompus, and Plato. And the Stoics’ opinion was, that the world should one day be dissolved by fire or water; and all things brought to a better state, or to the first golden age again (Sen. Nat. Quaest. 1. 3, c. 26-30). But we have a more sure word of prophecy; and this that is here recorded may serve as an image and type of our preservation in the grave, and our resurrection from the dead, by one and the same almighty power of God.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time] Jonah is a sinner, but not a castaway. God lays him not by as a broken vessel, treads him not to the dunghill, as unsavoury salt; but receives him upon his return by repentance, and restores him to his former employment, gives him yet a name and a nail in his house; yea, sends him a second time on his message to Nineveh; and counting him faithful, puts him again into the ministry, who was before a runagate, a rebel, &c. But he obtained mercy, #1Ti 1:13, as did likewise the apostles, after that they had basely deserted our Saviour at his passion; and Peter, after he had denied him, see #Joh 20:22,23 21:15-17. The penitent are as good as innocent, Quem poenitet peccasse, pcene est innocens (Sen. Agam.). "Return, ye backsliding children" (saith the Father of mercies), "and I will heal your backslidings," #Jer 3:22. The Shulamite returning is as lovely in Christ’s eye as before; and all is as well as ever between them, #So 6:4. There is a natural Novatianism in the timorous conscience of convinced sinners to doubt and question pardon for sins of apostasy and falling after repentance; but had they known the gift of God, and who it is that saith to them, "Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee," they would have conceived strong consolation.

Ver. 2. Arise, go unto Nineveh] Begin again, and take better heed; as that Nazarite was to do that had defiled the head of his consecration, #Nu 6:9,12.

Unto Nineveh, that great city] {See Trapp on "Jon 1:2"} There was no city since, by the estimation of Diodorus, had the like compass of ground or stateliness of walls; the height thereof being a hundred feet, the breadth able to receive three carts abreast, adorned with fifteen hundred turrets. Some think (as Annius and Berosus) that those three cities spoken of, #Ge 10:11,12, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen, were all included in Nineveh, and they conceive it thus; that when Nimrod had built Babylon, Ninus, disdaining his government, went into the fields of Asshur, and there erected a city after his own name. Raphael Volaterranus saith it was eight years in building, ten thousand men working at it. Quintilian saith, that great Milan, ancient Ravenna, brave Bononia, noble Naples, and other great cities of Italy, are but towers to Rome: but what was Rome to Nineveh? and yet Lipsius hath written a treatise of Rome’s greatness; and when the Emperor Constantine came to Rome, and beheld the companies that entertained him, he repeated a saying of Cineas, the Epirote, that he had seen so many kings as citizens; but, viewing the building of the city, he thought, naturam vires omnes in urbem unam effudisse, that nature had showed the utmost of what she could do in that one great city. {See Trapp on "Jon 3:3"}

And preach unto it the preaching] Heb. Proclaim unto it (or against it) the proclamation that I say to thee, that I have formerly put into thy mouth, and do now so again, sc. that their wickedness is come up before me, and I am even upon the way toward them to punish it grievously. Flagitium et flagellum sunt sicut acus et filium, Who ever waxed fierce against God and prospered? #Job 9:4. This wicked men must be boldly told, #Isa 3:11, however they take it; neither may God’s ministers steal away the word, #Jer 23:30, or keep back from the people any part of God’s counsel, #Ac 20:27, "handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commend themselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God," #2Co 4:2, as becometh his ambassadors.

Ver. 3. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh] He went not home first to bid them farewell, as #Lu 9:61, neither went he another way, as once; it was enough of that once, and he had learned obedience by the things that he had suffered. To Nineveh he goes, though a mere and a lowly stranger, unknown, unregarded, and with a harsh message; such as he might fear would cost him his life from that fierce and furious people. But Jonah feared nothing now but disobedience; and seems to say, as afterwards Luther did, Inveniar sane superbus, excors et mode impii silentii non arguar, Let me be called and counted proud, mad, anything, everything that naught is, so that I be not found guilty of sinful silence, and of betraying the trust committed unto me, by a dastardly deserting the cause of God. Jonah was now of another spirit, and fulfilled after God ( implevit post me), as Caleb, #Nu 14:24; for what reason? he had now received not a "spirit of fear," and of bondage (δειλειας, δουλειας, #Ro 8:15), "but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind," #2Ti 1:7; his Spirit of grace had sanctified to him his afflictions, which else would have been but as hammers to cold iron; as they were to Pharaoh, Ahaz, the railing thief. Aben Ezra saith that as soon as ever the whale had vomited up Jonah he got up and took the direct way to Nineveh; that if God should command him thither again he might be ready, and show his forwardness. It is a very good sign when men are the better for what they suffer; when thereby the iniquity of Jacob is purged, and this is all the fruit, the taking away of their sin, #Isa 27:9.

According to the word of the Lord] His call and command, which Jonah had formerly cast behind him, Sed Piscator ictus sapit, There shall be only fear to make you understand the hearing, #Isa 28:19. Isaiah stood off till frightened; but then he offers his service; "Here I am, send me." {#Isa 6:8}

Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city] Heb. a great city of God, or, to God; which some interpreted dear to God, and such as he would not destroy, Deo chara et cura. Others, a city not idolatrous, though otherwise vicious. Others, a city which God himself accounted great, and looked upon as such. But if to a great mind nothing is great, as Seneca saith ( animo magno nihil magnum), what can be great to him who is great, #Ps 77:13, greater, #Job 33:12, greatest, #Ps 95:3, greatness itself, #Ps 145:3, and to whom all "nations are but as the drop of a bucket, or dust of the balance? behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing," #Isa 40:15. Oecolampadius applieth it to the Church of the Gentiles, that "city of the living God." They do best that take it, as we read it, for "an exceeding great city"; like as elsewhere tall mountains and cedars are called mountains of God, #Ps 36:7, and cedars of God, #Ps 80:10 &c., and excellent wrestlings are wrestlings of God, #Ge 30:8. See #Ge 23:6. So the Greeks and Latins call great things divine; God being the measure of all true greatness, διος Αχιλλευς, λακεδαιμονα διαν (Homer). Nineveh, since it was a very great city (of fifty miles around, as Herodotus and Diodorus), so Jonah is often told so; that he might come to it well prepared and resolved; since he was to have a great task and a hard tug of it, see #Jon 3:2 Jon 1:2.

Of three days’journey] Not such a journey as a traveller could despatch in no less time; but such as a preacher, pedetentim obambulando, by leisurely walking, might in three days go through (Theodoret); see #Jon 3:4. This is added to set forth further the greatness of the city.

Ver. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the city] Having seen God he now fears no colours, dreads no danger; as neither did Moses, Micaiah, Isaiah, #Isa 6:9-12, Paul, #Ac 21:13, Luther going to Worms. "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men," #2Co 5:11, we forewarn them to flee from the wrath to come, #Mt 3:7, we pull them out of the fire of hell, as firebrands, #Jude 23.

A day’s journey] One of the three days, #Jon 3:3. Not all the three in one day, for haste, as Jerome would have it.

And he cried, and said] Not fearfully muttering his message, but delivering it with a courage, Boanerges-like, able almost to make his hearers’ hearts fall down and hairs stand upright, as one saith of Master Perkins.

Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown] The word properly noteth a sudden, inevitable, and perpetual destruction, such as was that of Sodom and her sisters, #Ge 19:25 Jer 20:16 Isa 13:19 Am 4:11. Now we must not think that Jonah said no more than is here set down; that he expressed no condition, such as was that, #Re 2:5, "except ye repent"; or that like a madman he ran up and down the city (as one did once about Jerusalem, and another lately about London), repeating and thundering out these words only, inconditis et ineptis clamoribus, with harsh and hoarse outcries. God therefore threateneth that he may not punish, and all his threats are conditional, #Jer 18:8, if they repent, he will also. This, if Jonah expressed not, yet the Ninevites understood; for else they would never have repented, but despaired (as Judas with his poenitentia Iscariotica), and defied Jonah as an evil messenger sent against them. They might well enough think that if God had not meant them mercy he would never have forewarned them, never have given them forty days’ respite: the Septuagint cannot be refused for rendering it three days’ (though some have attempted it). It is probable that Jonah omitted nothing that pertained to the preaching of repentance, though here we have it set down in some only. The Hebrews tell us that the mariners also went to Nineveh; and, telling what had befallen Jonah at sea, confirmed his doctrine and sentence against the Ninevites, who thereupon repented. But these, as they affirm without reason, so they may be dismissed without refutation.

Ver. 5. So the people of Nineveh believed God] See the mighty power of God’s holy word. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds," #2Co 10:4, to the laying flat those walls of Jericho, making the devil fall as lightning from the heaven of men’s hearts, #Lu 10:18. These Ninevites, though rich, great, peaceable, prosperous, profane above measure (as great cities use to be), &c., yet, at the preaching of Jonah, they believed God, and repented of their evil ways; whether truly and seriously I have not to say. There is a historical faith, an assent to the truth of what God speaketh, and trembling thereat, #Jas 2:19; there is also a natural and moral repentance wrought by natural conscience, such as was that of Pharaoh, Saul, Ahab, Alexander the Great, when, having killed Clitus, he was troubled in conscience, and sent to all kind of philosophers (as it were to so many ministers) to know what he might do to appease his conscience, and satisfy for his sin. There are very good authors that hold this conversion of the Ninevites to have been sound and serious (and for this they allege that of our Saviour, #Mt 12:41), flowing from a lively faith in God, which is the root of all the rest of the graces, the very womb wherein they are received; the fountain also and foundation of all good works, as the apostle Peter hinteth when he saith, #2Pe 1:5, "add to your faith virtue," which is nothing else but faith exercised.

And proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth] These were the fruits of their faith; and though but bodily exercises and external performances, yet they might serve both to evidence and to increase their inward humiliation. Ieiunium et saccus arma poenitentiae (Jerome). True it is that hypocrites and heathens may do all this and more, as Ahab; those #Ps 78:34,36 Isa 58:3. The Romans in a strait, ad Deos populum et vota convertunt, commanded the whole people with their wives and little ones to pray and pacify the gods, to fill all the temples, and the women to sweep and rub the pavements thereof with the hairs of their heads (Liv. 1. 3).

From the greatest, &c.] {See Trapp on "Joe 2:16"}

Ver. 6. For word came unto the king of Nineveh] I can hardly believe that this was Sardanapalus, as some will carry it, but some other better prince, that, Vespasian-like, was patientissimus veri, very tolerant of the truth, one that had those about him that would tell him the truth of things, and he was content to hear it, and submit to it (Quintilian). Like enough it is, that this was but harsh news to him at first hearing; but when he had well considered it, and taken advice upon it, he set upon a reformation. Our chroniclers tell us of a poor hermit that came to Richard I, A. D. 1195, and, preaching to him the words of eternal life, bade him be mindful of the overthrow of Sodom, and to abstain from things unlawful. Otherwise, said he, the deserved vengeance of God will come upon thee. The hermit being gone, the king at first seemed to slight his words. But, afterwards falling sick, he more seriously bethought himself; and, waxing sound in soul as well as body, he grew more devout and charitable to the poor, rising early and not departing from the church till divine service were finished. If the King of Nineveh had ever heard of Jonah’s being in the whale’s belly, it might well be some inducement to him to believe his preaching, it might do him no less good than John Frith’s book, called "A Preparation to the Cross," brought in a fish’s belly to the University of Cambridge a little before the commencement, did to some good people here, that had hearts to make use of it. One grave divine (Mr Jeremiah Dike) gave this note upon it in a sermon before the parliament, over 20 years since: That such a book should be brought in such a manner, and to such a place, and at such a time, when by reason of people’s confluence out of all parts notice might be given to all places of the land, in mine apprehension it can be construed for no less than a Divine warning, and to have this voice with it, England, prepare for the cross.

He arose from his throne] Laid aside his state, as the Great Turk also doth, at this day, when he entereth into his temple to pray. #Jer 13:18, "Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even to the crown of your glory." This great king could not but know himself to be a great sinner; and that his sins had done much harm: 1. By imputation: for plectuntur Achivi, the people often pray for their rulers’ follies, as in David’s days, #2Sa 24:2. By imitation: for magnates are magnets, they draw many by their example; and as bad humours flow from the head to the body, so do bad rulers corrupt the rest. This conscious and (as some think) conscientious king therefore riseth up from his throne (as Eglon, that unwieldy king of Moab, had once done to hear God’s message by Ehud, #Jud 3:20), et qui paulo ante sedebat superbus in folio, nunc iacet humilis in solo, he lieth low, and putteth his mouth in the dust, #La 3:29, laying aside all cogitation and pride of his kingly majesty; together with all soft and sumptuous raiment, that nest of pride, as one calleth it.

He laid his robe from him] Paludamentum suum, saith Tremelius; but that is a cloak which the Roman emperors used to put on when they went forth to battle, and therefore not so proper here (as Piscator thinks), since there was no visible enemy, which makes the Ninevites’ repentance the more remarkable. Mercer rendereth it Chlamydem suam, his imperial cloak; the Chaldee, his precious garments. The word signifieth his sumptuous and gorgeous attire, his cloak of state, no less costly, perhaps, than that of Alcisthenes, the Sybarite, sold to the Carthaginians by Dionysius for 120 talents; or that of Demetrius of Macedon, which none of his successors would wear, propter invidiosam impendii magnificentiam, for the exceeding great costliness thereof. This robe or purple and other ornaments the King of Nineveh laid aside, as was fit, in this day of restraint, as a fast day is fitly called. So "the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb," where they had made a golden calf, #Ex 33:6. "For the Lord had said to Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee," #Ex 33:5, that I may determine how to dispose of thee: and this is spoken after the manner of men, who judge by the outward actions, as #Ge 18:21 22:12, for otherwise, God knoweth all his works from the beginning of the world, #Ac 15:18. But he speaketh this here as if he would hereby judge by their repentance, whether it were true or false. The prophet Isaiah objects it to those of his time for a foul fault, "Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your pleasure," #Isa 58:3.

And covered him with sackcloth] And so, as Chrysostom hath it, quod non poterat diadema, id saccus obtinuit; sicut ferrum potest quod aurum non potest. Sackcloth could prevail more than silk, as iron can do what gold cannot.

And sat in ashes] In cinere illo, so Vatablus rendereth it; in that ashes wherein he used to sit when he most mourned. Our sorrow for sin should be the deepest of all sorrows, #Zec 12:11-13. {See Trapp on "Zec 12:11"} {See Trapp on "Zec 12:12"} {See Trapp on "Zec 12:13"}

Ver. 7. And he caused it to be proclaimed] By sound of trumpet, as #Joe 2:12; or otherwise, as #2Ch 20:3,4,18-20 22:6,7; at which times he that obeyeth not is culpable before God and man, #Le 23:29.

By the decree of the king and his nobles] Who all unanimously consenting to so good a work, iis quibus praeerant, praeibant, became a precedent to their inferiors, who looked upon them (no doubt) as their lookingglasses, by which most men dressed themselves. When Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed, many Corinthians believed also, #Ac 18:8. The primitive Christians were wont to pray that their emperors might have good counsellors (Tertullian). Of a certain prince in Germany it was said that, Esset alius, si esset apud alios, He would have been a far better man had he had better servants and officers about him (Bucholcer).

Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing] The whole action of fasting hath its name, both in Hebrew and Greek, םוצ νηστεια, from abstinence and forbearance of meats and drinks; a toto, if it may be, at least, a tanto et a tali, as #Da 10:2,3; and as it might be here, till the forty days were expired; besides, that one or more solemn days of total fasting, "wherein neither man nor beast," &c. But why is the beast abridged of sustenance? both to testify and increase the people’s lamentation by their lowings and bellowings. Alexander the Great, at the death of his favourite Hephaestion, clipped his horses’ and mules’ hair, and cut them short, in token of his great grief; he pulled down also the battlements of the walls, that they might seem to mourn with him (Plutarch). So Virgil, speaking of the general grief for Caesar’s death, saith (Eclog. 5):

“ Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus

Frigida, Daphni, boves ad fiumina; nulla nec annem

Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam.”

Let them not feed, nor drink water] But what they get of themselves without man’s care, who is to be wholly intent and taken up in God’s service; and so to begin the heavenly life here, the sweetness whereof makes him forbear both meat and thirst. Besides, they took pride in their palfries, covering them with purple and rich trappings, see #Jud 8:26, they catered for the flesh, by fatting cattle and other creatures to please their palate. This they were now forbidden to do by an edict from the king, who interesteth himself in matters of religion; as did also Artaxerxes, #Ezr 7:26 (for which Ezra seeth cause to bless God); and Nebuchadnezzar, #Da 3:29, which the Scripture commendeth, and recordeth as a work of his repentance.

Ver. 8. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth] Let all best means be used for the humbling of the heart; without which what is a humbling day but a religious incongruity (saith one) and a very high provocation; like Zimri’s act, when all the congregation were weeping before the door of the tabernacle? The beasts covered with sackcloth were as a house hung with black, to move men to mourn the more. Chrysostom tells us of a custom in his time (and it is still in use among us), that when great men were buried their horses followed the hearse clothed in black, as seeming to mourn for their masters. The coarsest weeds are fittest for fasting days; to show that but for shame we would have none, as having forfeited all; and that we look upon our better apparel but as finer covers of the foulest shame.

And cry mightily unto God] Cry with a courage; let the beasts roar lustily and rend the clouds, as it were, with their clamours; want of food will make them do so. And as God can so speak as that the brute beasts shall understand him, #Joe 2:11 Am 5:8 9:4 Joh 2:10; so can they, after a sort, so speak or moan that he can understand them, #Joe 1:20 Ho 2:21 Ps 147:9: he heareth the young ravens that cry unto him, though but with a hoarse and harsh note; whence also they have their name in Hebrew. Much more will he hear men that cry unto him, if they cry mightily with intention of spirit, and extension or rather contention of speech; if they set up their note, as the noise of many waters, #Re 19:6; if they thunder and threaten heaven, as Nazianzen saith his sister Gorgonia did; if they bounce hard at heaven’s gates, and resolve to wring mercy from God by a holy violence, as Tertullian saith the good people of his time did, Preces fundimus, coelum tundimus, misericordium extorquemus (Tert.). "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much"; but then it must be the working, stirring, labourful prayer, as the word ενεργουμενη, #Jas 5:16, signifieth; that strives and struggles, and strains every vein in the heart (as Elias seemed to do by that posture in prayer of "putting his head between his legs," #1Ki 18:42); that sets to work all the faculties of the soul and all the graces of the spirit; that stirs up dust, as Jacob did; maketh a man sweat, as our Saviour; who, being in "an agony, prayed the more earnestly," #Lu 22:44; not without strong crying and tears, and was heard in that he feared, #Heb 5:7. For such a prayer, when a man cries to God, εξ ισχυος αυτου, mightily, or with all his strength, πολυ ισχυει, it availeth much, it can do anything, as Paul, using the same words, saith, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me," #Php 4:13.

Yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, &c.] For else prayer profits not, humiliation is to no purpose without reformation; repentance for sin, without repentance from sin; there must be fruits meet for repentance, answerable to amendment of life, tantamount as repentance, and that weigh just as much as it, αξια; for, Optima et aptissima poenitentia est nova vita, saith Luther, the best and truest repentance is a new life; and if God’s people will humble themselves, and pray and seek his face, and also turn from their evil ways, then he will do much for them, #2Ch 7:14.

And from the violence that is in their hands] Heb. In the hollow of their hands, where it lay hidden, as it were, but not from God, who here bids them turn from their wrong dealing and rapacity. This was their special sin ( ut in magnis imperiis et emporiis magnae sunt rapinae), therefore are they charged to relinquish it. It is a speech, saith Mercer, like to that of our Saviour, "Go, tell my disciples and Peter," &c. Tell them all, but be sure you tell Peter. So here, turn from all your evil ways, but especially from the violence that is in your hands. See #Isa 59:6 Eze 23:27 Ps 7:4. The Hebrews understand this text of restitution to be made of ill-gotten goods, or wrongfully detained from the right owners. This, say they, must be done, or the party can be no more renewed by repentance than a man could be legally purified by the washing of water, when he continued to hold in his hand an unclean thing. That of Austin is well known. The sin is not remitted till that which hath been ill-gotten from another be restored, Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum (Aug.). And that of Father Latimer: "Restore, or else you will cough in hell, and the devils will laugh at you. Gravel in the kidneys will not grate so upon you as a little guiltiness of this kind will do upon your consciences." The same Latimer tells us, in a sermon before King Edward VI, that the first day that he preached about restitution there came one and gave him twenty pounds to restore; the next time another, and brought him in thirty pounds; another time another gave him two hundred pounds ten shillings. The law for restitution, see #Nu 5:6,7; the party must not only confess but restore, or he is not a true convert. And this will well appear when death comes to draw the curtain, and look in upon a man. Hence our Henry VII in his last will and testament, after the disposition of his soul and body, he willed restitution should be made of all such monies as had unjustly been levied by his officers. And the like we read of Selimus, the Grand Signior, in the Turkish history.

Ver. 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent] This is the speech of one that doubteth and yet despaireth not, like that of David praying for his sick child, "Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?" #2Sa 12:22. We are staggering, saith Saint Paul, but not wholly sticking, #2Co 4:8. They that go down to the pit (of despair, as well as of the grave, #Isa 38:18) cannot hope for thy truth, but are hurried headlong into hell, as the Gergesites’ swine were into the sea. The prophet Jonah was peremptory, that by such a day Nineveh should be destroyed. These men, therefore, had good reason to doubt, if not the pardon of their sins, yet the saving of their city. All their hope is, that this that Jonah denounced was not God’s absolute decree, but only his threatening, and that conditionally too, viz. except they repented. This, if they could do, and heartily, they knew not but that mercy might be yet obtained. Keep hope in heart, or the work will go on heavily, #Ps 43:5. Hope is the daughter of Faith; but such as is a staff to her aged mother. {See Trapp on "Joe 2:14"} Of God’s repenting I have spoken elsewhere.

Ver. 10. And God saw their works] i.e. He noted and noticed them to others; or, he saw them, that is, he approved of them. Videre Dei, est approbare. Let God but see repentance as a rainbow appearing in our hearts and lives, and he will never drown us in destruction. But unless God sees turning, he sees no work in a fast, saith one upon this very text. God may say to impenitent fasters, saith another, as Isaac did to his father, "Behold the fire and wood, but where is the lamb?" Or as Jacob did concerning Joseph, "Here is the coat, but where is the child? Get thee behind me," saith Jehu to the messengers, "what hast thou to do with peace?" Confessions and humiliations are our messengers; but if the heart be not broken, if the life be not amended, what peace? The Talmudists note here, that God is not said to have seen their sackcloth and ashes, but their repentance and works, those fruits of their faith, truth in the inward parts, which God eyeth with singular delight, #Jer 5:3; as the work of his own Spirit, #Eph 2:10. Certum est nos facere quod facimus; sed ille facit ut faciamus (August.); and he is pleased to call his grace in us our works, for our encouragement in well doing, and freely to crown it in us, without any merit on our part.

That they turned from their evil way] To which they were by nature and ill custom so wedded and wedged, that they could never have been loosened but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of Heaven. The conversion of a sinner from the evil of his way is God’s own handywork, #Jer 31:18 2Ti 2:25 Eze 6:9. Plato went three times into Sicily to convert Dionysius, the tyrant, and could do no good on him. Polemo, of a drunkard, by hearing Xenocrates, is said to have become a philosopher. But what saith Ambrose to him? Si resipuit a vino, &c. If he repented of his drunkenness yet he continued an infidel; he was still temulentus sacrilegio, drunk with superstition. He recovered of one disease, and died of another, as Benhadad did; he gave but the half turn, and therefore turned at length, and nevertheless into hell, #Ps 9:17. We conceive better of these Ninevites, though some are of the opinion that their repentance was but feigned and forced, as was that of Pharaoh and Ahab, as appears (say they) by the sequent history, by their dealing against the Jews, and by Nahum.

And God repented] This was mutatio rei non Dei, change of intention not of God himself, as is above noted.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly] Mirabilis homo profecto fuit Ionas, saith Winckelman here, as strange a man was Jonah of an honest man as you shall lightly hear of. Well might David caution, #Ps 37:8, "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. A fretful man is easily drawn to evil. David was (once at least) displeased at God’s dealing, which was no whit for his credit or comfort, #2Sa 6:8. Discontented he was, not at God’s lenity, as Jonah, but at God’s severity against Uzziah, and that all the people’s joy should be dashed and damped with such a sad and sudden disaster. How much better minded was he when dumb, not once opening his mouth, because God did it, #Ps 39:9. The Greeks give this rule, Either say nothing, or say that which is better than nothing, η σιγαν η κρεισσονα σιγης λεγειν. "O that you would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom," said Job to his friends, #Job 13:5. Silence sometimes comes to be a virtue; and never more than when a man is causelessly displeased. Prima semper irarum tela maledicta sunt, saith Sallust. Angry people are apt to let fly, to mutter and mutiny against God and man, as here. Reason should say to choler that which the nurse saith to the child, Weep not, and you shall have it. But either it doth not, or if it do, yet the ear (which tasteth words, as the mouth doth meat) is oft so filled with gall (some creatures have fel in aure gall in gold) that nothing can relish with it. See #Ex 6:9. If Moses’ anger was pure, free from guile and gall, #Ex 32:19, yet Jonah’s was not so. It is surely very difficult to kindle and keep quick this fire without all smoke of sin. Be angry and sin not is, saith one, the easiest charge, under the hardest condition that can be. Men, for the most part, know not what they do in their anger; this raiseth such a smoke. Put fire to wet straw and filthy stuff, and it will smoke and smutch you quickly; yea, scorch you and scald you, when once it breaks out. #Le 13:5, we read of a leprosy breaking out of a burning: seldom do passions burn but there is a leprosy breaking out of that burning. It blistereth out at the lips: hence the Hebrews have but one and the same word for anger and foaming at the mouth, Ketseph, spuma, #Ho 10:7 Es 1:18 Zec 1:2. They have also a proverb, that a man’s disposition is much discovered, bechos, bechis, becagnab, by his cup, by his purse, and by his passion, at which time, and in which cases, "A fool uttereth all his mind," #Pr 29:11 (all his wrath, say the Seventy, θυμον), and that suddenly, rashly, as the Hebrew intimateth; but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards, #Pr 29:11 ( רתפ a fool, and םאתפ suddenly, rashly, are from the same root. De sera numin, vindict.). Ahasuerus, when he felt himself enraged against Haman, walked into his garden, #Es 7:7. And Plutarch tells of one Archytas, that, displeased with his servants for their sloth, he fled from them, saying, Valete quoniam vobis irascor, I will leave you, for that I am angry with you. The very first insurrections of inordinate passions are to be crushed, the first smoke of them to be smothered, which else will fume up into the head, and gather into so thick a cloud, as we shall lose the sight of ourselves and what is best to be done. Cease, therefore, from rash anger, and stint strife betime. "The beginning of it," saith Solomon, "is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with," #Pr 17:14. Storms rise out of little gusts, and the highest winds are at first but a small vapour. Had Jonah stopped or stepped back when he felt himself first stirred, he had not so shamefully overshot himself, nor heaped up so many sins, as he did in the following intercourse with Almighty God. He was naturally hot and hasty, and so were those two brethren, the sons of thunder; they had quick and hot spirits, #Lu 9:54,55. Now, where there is much untowardness of nature there grace is the more easily overborne: sour wines need much sweetening. God’s best children, though ingrafted into the true vine, yet carry they about them a relish of the old stock still. It is thought by very good divines, that Jonah, feeling his own weakness in giving place to anger, thought to strive against it, and so addressed himself to prayer, #Jon 4:2; but transported by his passions of grief and rash anger, while by prayer he thought to have overcome them, they overcame him and his prayer too. So true is that of the apostle, "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God," #Jas 1:20.

Ver. 2. And he prayed unto the Lord] i.e. He thought to have done so, but by the deceitfulness of his own heart he quarrelled with God, and instead of wrestling with him, as Jacob, he wrangled with him. The words seem to be rather a brawl than a prayer, which should ever proceed from a sedate and settled spirit, and hold conformity with the will of God. Could Jonah be in case to pray, when he had neither right conceptions of God nor a heart of mercy to men, but that millions of people must perish rather than he be held a false prophet? Say there were something in it of zeal for God’s glory, which he thought would suffer, as if God were either mutable or impotent; say that there were in this outburst something of affection to God’s people, who had then no greater enemy to fear than these Ninevites, whom therefore Jonah would have had destroyed, according to his prediction; yet cannot he be excused for falling so foul upon God, and upbraiding him with that which is his greatest glory, #Ex 33:18,19 34:6,7. The truth is, nothing makes a man eccentric in his motions so much as headstrong passions and private respects. He that brings these into God’s presence shall do him but little good service. The soul is then only well carried when neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly, as did Jonah here, and Job, in that peevish prayer of his, #Job 6:8,9. See also #Jer 20:7,8.

I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, &c.] That is, my thought: for whether he worded it thus with God till now it appeareth not; but God heareth the language of men’s hearts, and their silence to him is a speaking evidence.

When I was yet in my country?] And had Jonah so soon forgotten what God had done for him since he came thence? Oh, what a grave is oblivion! and what a strange passage is that (and yet how common!) "Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel." {#Ps 106:12,13} Jonah did not surely wait for God’s counsel, but anticipated it. ldcirco anteverti, saith he in the next words (therefore I fled before), and thought he had said well, spoke very good reasoning. It is the property of lust and passion so to blear the understanding of a man that he shall think he hath reason to be mad, and that there is great sense in sinning. Dogs in a chase bark at their own masters; so do people in their passions let fly at their best friends. "They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth," #Ps 73:9. Jonah in his heat here justifieth his former flight, which he had so sorely smarted for, et quasi quidam Aristarchus, he taketh upon him to censure God for his superabundant goodness, which is above all praise.

For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, &c.] This he knew to be God’s name, #Ex 34:6,7, but withal he should have remembered what was the last letter in that name, viz. that he will by no means clear the guilty. See #Na 1:2,8. The same fire hath burning heat and cheerful light. Gracious is the Lord, but yet righteous, saith David, #Ps 116:5, his mercy goes ever bounded by his truth. This Jonah should have considered; and therefore trembled thus to have upbraided God with that mercy by which himself subsisted, and but for which he had been long since in hell, for his tergiversation and peevishness. But "mercy rejoiceth against judgment," #Jas 2:13, and runneth as a spring, without ceasing. It is not like those pools about Jerusalem that might be dried up with the tramplings of horse and horsemen. "The grace of God was exceeding abundant," #1Ti 1:14. It hath abounded to flowing over (υπερ επλεονασε) as the sea doth above the largest rocks. See this in the present instance. Jonah addeth sin to sin, and doth enough to undo himself for ever: so that a man would wonder how God could forbear killing him, as he had like to have done Moses when he met him in the inn. But he is God, and not man; he contents himself to admonish Jonah for his fault, as a friend and familiar, velut cum eo colludens, jesting with him, as it were, and, by an outward sign, showing him how grievously he had offended. Concerning these attributes of God here recited, {See Trapp on "Joe 2:13"} and say, with Austin, Laudent alii pietatem: Dei ego misericordiam. Let no spider suck poison out of this sweetest flower: nor out of a blind zeal make ill use of it, as Jonah doth, for a cloak of his rebellion, lest abused mercy turn into fury.

Ver. 3. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me] A pitiful peevish prayer, such as was that of Job, and that of Jeremiah above noted; to which may be added Sarah’s hasty wish for God to arbitrate between her and her husband; Moses’ quibbling with God, till at length he was angry, #Ex 4:10,14; Elias’s desire to die out of discontent, &c. What a deal of filth and of flesh clogs and cleaves to our best performances! Hence David so prays for his prayers, and Nehemiah for pardon of his reformations. Anger is ever an evil counsellor; but when it creeps into our prayers it corrupts them worse than vinegar doth the vessel wherein it standeth. "Submit yourselves therefore to God," as Jonah should have done, "resist this devil" of pride and passion, "and he will flee from you," #Jas 4:7; as by giving place to impatience ye "give place to the devil," #Eph 4:26, who else by his vile injections, or at least by his vain impertinencies, will so spoil and mar our duties that we may well wonder they are not cast back as dirt into our faces. Sure it is that if the Holy Ghost had not his hand in our prayers there would not be the least goodness in them; no, not uprightness and truth, without which Christ would never present them, or the Father accept them.

For it is better for me to die than to live] sc. in that disgrace that I shall now undergo of being a false prophet, not henceforth to be believed. Lo, this was it that troubled the man so much, as it did likewise Moses, #Ex 4:1, "They will not believe me; for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee." But God should have been trusted by them for that, and his call obeyed howsoever, without consults or disputes; careless of their own credit, so that God might be exalted. True it is that a man had better die with honour than live in disgrace truly so called. "It were better for me to die," saith holy Paul, "than that any man should make my glorying void," #1Co 9:15. Provident we must be (but not overly tender) to preserve our reputation; learning of the unjust steward by lawful (though he did by unlawful) means to do it; for our Saviour noted this defect in the children of light, that herein they were not often as wise as they should be, #Lu 16:8. But Jonah was too heady and hasty in this wish of his death; because his credit, as he thought, was cracked, and he should be looked upon as a liar. But was the Euge of a good conscience nothing to him? was God’s approbation of no value, nor the good esteem of his faithful people? It was enough for Demetrius that he had a good report of the truth, #3Jo 12, whatever the world held or said of him. What is the honour of the world but a puff of stinking breath? and why should any Jonah be so ambitious for it, as that without it he cannot find in his heart to live? Life is better than honour. "Joseph is yet alive," saith Jacob. To have heard that Joseph lived a servant would have joyed him more than to hear that he died honourably. The greater blessing obscureth the less. He is not worthy of honour that is not thankful for life. St Paul’s desire to be dissolved that he might be with Christ, which is far the better, #Php 1:23, was much different from this of Jonah.

Ver. 4. Doest thou do well to be angry?] Or, what? art thou very angry? Nunquid recte? Summon the sobriety of thy senses before thine own judgment, and see whether there be a cause. "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good?" #Mt 20:15. Shall I not show mercy on whom I will show mercy? Or enviest thou these poor Ninevites their preservation, for my sake? Cannot I provide for mine own glory and for thine authority by other means and ways than thou imaginest? Have patience, Jonah, and rest better satisfied with my dispensation. "Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." For, I wot well, the "wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God," #Jas 1:19,20. This thou wilt see, and say as much, when thou comest to thyself, for now thou art quite off; and being transported as thou art,

“ Nil audire voles, nil discere, quod levet aegrum” (Horat.).

Jerome seeks to excuse Jonah’s anger; but God here condemneth it, as not well: and Jonah himself, partly by not answering it again, and partly by recording the story, seems to say of himself, as Father Latimer doth in another case (Serm. 3rd Sund. in Advent), I have used in mine earnest matters to say, Yea, by Saint Mary, which indeed is not well. Anger is not altogether unlawful so it be well carried. It is, saith one, a tender virtue; and as it is not evil to marry, but good to be wary, so here. Let a man ask himself this question, Do I well to be thus angry? and is mine indignation rightly regulated for principle, object, measure, end? If it be not, the Spirit of God will be grieved in the good soul, and sensibly stir; yea, thou shalt hear the correcting voice thereof within thee, saying, Doest thou well to be thus angry? Should not "all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away, with all malice?" And should ye not be "kind one to another, and tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you?" #Eph 4:30-32.

Ver. 5. So Jonah went out of the city] As not yet knowing what God might do, though he found him inclinable to show them mercy upon their repentance. Or he might think, haply, that these Ninevites were only sermon sick, penitent indeed for the present, but it was too good to hold long: these seemingly righteous men would soon fall from their righteousness, and then be destroyed, though for present somewhat favoured of God. Mercer reads the text in the pluperfect tense, and makes it a hysteron proteron, {a} thus, exierat autem Ionas; but Jonah had gone out of the city, sc. before he had shown himself so hot and hasty against God, and brawled with him as above. Others think that when he saw which way the squares were like to go, he flung out of the city in a great pout: and if God had fetched him again with a sharp blow on the ear (as Queen Elizabeth did the Earl of Essex, her favourite, when being crossed by her of his will, he uncivilly turned his back, as it were in contempt), he had done him no wrong. But God is longsuffering; he considereth whereof we are made, and with what strong corruptions we are beset. He knows that sin hath a strong heart, and will not easily be done to death; that nothing cleaves more pertinaciously or is more inexpugnable than a strong lust, whether it be worldliness, wantonness, passionateness, pride, ambition, revenge, or the like: these Jebusites will not easily be driven out; these sturdy rebels will hardly be subdued; these stick closest, as a shirt doth to a leprous body, and cannot be done off but with great ado. Now if Jonah be of a choleric constitution, and soon kindled; if this evil of his nature have been confirmed by custom (a second nature); if Satan stir up the coals, and say to him, as the people did to Pilate, "Do as thou ever hast done"; God graciously considereth all this, and beareth with his evil manners.

And sat on the east side of the city] Quite out of the precincts; where he might see their ruin, and not suffer with them. Fawkes, after he had laid his train, and set it to work to fire the powder at such an hour, was to have retired himself into George’s Fields, and there to have beheld the sport. That Jonah was so uncharitable as to wish and wait for the overthrow of Nineveh, and not that they would rather return and live, admits no excuse. But that expecting its overthrow (according to that God had threatened by him), he secured himself by separating from those sinners against their own souls, was well and wisely done of him. See #Isa 48:20 52:11 2Co 6:17 Re 16:4 Lot did so from Sodom, the people from Core and his accomplices, John and his disciples from Cerinthus the heretic: he sprung out of the bath from that blasphemer (εξηλατο του Βαλανειου), lest he should be punished with him; so the Church of Jerusalem packed away to Pella (Euseb. 1. 3. c. 5).

And there made him a booth] A sorry something, wherein to repose himself, till the indignation were overpast. Ministers, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, must suffer hardship, be content to dwell in tents, or to lie in huts, till they come to the heavenly palace, where they shall have a better building, #2Co 5:1; yea, a throne in that city of pearl, whose master builder is God, #Heb 11:13. Meanwhile, let them not seek great things for themselves, but, as the Turks never build sumptuously for their own private uses, but content themselves with simple cottages, how mean soever, good enough, say they, for the short time of our pilgrimage here; so much more should Christians, and especially ministers, whose reward, how little soever upon earth, is great in heaven, #Mt 5:12. Let them live upon reversions, and though their dwelling be but mean, a booth, or little better, yet they shall have stately mansions above, and, in the mean time, if they can but say as that heathen did, ´ Ενθα και οι θεοι, God dwells here with me, this house of mine is a little church, a tabernacle of the God of Jacob; oh, how happy are they in that behalf, even above the Great Turk, with his harem. (which is two miles in compass); yea, with his whole empire, which (saith Luther) is but a crust cast by the great housekeeper of the world to his dogs.

And sat under it in the shadow] "Having food and raiment," saith the apostle, "let us therewith be content." Where the word σκεπασμα, rendered raiment, signifieth any covering over head, if it be but a hair cloth. Some say it signifies domicilium, a house; others say that houses are not named, for that they wore not anywhere to fix, but to be ready to run from place to place, and to leave house and all behind them; or as soldiers burn their huts when the siege is ended, that they may go home to their houses, being discontentedly contented in the mean while; so should we, glad to hover and cover under the shadow of the Almighty by the grace of faith, quae te pullastrum, Christum gallinum facit, which makes Christ the hen and thee the chicken, saith Luther.

Till he might see what would become of the city] Whether God would not ratify his word by raining down hell from heaven upon it, as once he did upon sinful Sodom, or overwhelm it with the river Tigris, as once he did some part of it, saith Diodorus Siculus, so that two and a half miles of the town wall were thrown down by it. And the prophet Nahum threateneth, that with an overflowing flood God would make an end of the place thereof, #Na 1:8.

{a} A figure of speech in which the word or phrase that should properly come last is put first. ŒD

Ver. 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd] sc. after that his booth was dried up, and the leaves withered, God, by his providence, and not without a miracle (because without seed, and so suddenly), furnished Jonah with his gourd or ivy bush, or white vine, or the plant called Palma Christi, or Pentedactylon, because it resembleth a man’s hand with five fingers; something it was, but what is not certainly known. Kimchi thus describeth it: Est herba longis et altis frondibus umbrosa: It is a herb or plant that yieldeth good shade with its long and large leaves. And many years before him, one Rabba, son of Hanna, said, that it grows by the water’s side, is commonly set for shade’s sake before tavern doors, and that oil is made of the seeds of it.

And made it to come up over Jonah] Not only to refresh him (who having been so lately in the whale’s belly, was haply more tender skinned than before, and not so well able to endure the heat of the sun), but also to make way to that reproof he afterwards gave him, #Jon 4:10. Hoc enim externo signo, saith Mercer, for by this outward sign, God sporting with him, as it were, clearly convinceth him of his impatience, and admonisheth him of his duty; and this he thinketh was not done till the forty days were over.

To deliver him from his grief] From his headache, caused by the heat of the sun; which yet he cursed not as the scorched Atlantes are said to do. Or to exhilarate and refresh his spirits after his self-vexing; for the hasty man never wants woe, and the envious person, because he cannot come at another man’s heart, feedeth upon his own. Now though God chide him for his fault, yet, as a father he tendereth his infirmity, and taketh care that the "spirit fail not before him, and the soul that he had made." And it is as if he should say: Jonah goeth on frowardly in the way of his heart; "I have seen his ways and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him," #Isa 57:16-18; as it is a rule in medicine still to maintain nature.

So Jonah was exceeding glad] Heb. rejoiced with great joy, that is, supra modum, he was excessive in all his passions, which speaks him a weak man. Some think he rejoiced the more in the gourd, as conceiving that God thereby voted with him, and for him. This was also Leah’s error, when rejoicing in that whereof she should have repented rather, she said, #Ge 30:18, "God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband, and she hath borne me a fifth son." So much mistaken are the best sometimes, and so bladderlike is man’s soul, that filled with earthly vanities, though but wind, and gone with a wind, it grows great, and swells in pride and folly, but if pricked with the least pin of piercing grief it shrivelleth to nothing.

Ver. 7. But God prepared a worm] All occurrences are to be ascribed not to nature, fate, or fortune, but to God, who, as he is great in great things, so is he not little in the least, maximus in magnis, nec parvus in minimis. He prepared first the gourd, and then the worm, and then the wind. He was the great doer in all. He so attempereth all that his people shall have their times and their turns of joy and sorrow. These two are tied together, said the heathen, with chains of adamant; hence also Ageronia’s altar in the temple of Volupia (Plut.). See the circle God usually goes in with his, #Ps 30:5-7, &c., to teach them that all outward comforts are but as grass or flower of the field, which he can soon blast or corrode by some worm of his providing. Moneo te iterumque iterumque monebo, saith Lactantius, I warn thee, therefore, and will do it again and again, that thou look not upon those earthly delights as either great or true to those that trust them; but as things that are not only deceitful, because doubtful, but also deadly, because delicious. There is a worm lies couchant in every gourd to smite it, a worm to waste it, besides the worm of conscience bred in that froth and filth, for a perpetual torment.

And it smote the gourd that it withered] Plants have also their wounds, diseases, and death, saith Pliny (lib. 17, cap. 14). The gourd being gnawed at the root, and robbed of its moistness, withered. Sic transit gloria mundi. So fleeting is the glory of the world. But "the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree" (not like this palm crist), #Ps 92:12. Now the palm tree, though it have many weights at the top and many snakes or worms at the root, yet it still says, Nec premor nec perimor, I am neither borne down nor dried up; but as Noah’s olive drowned, kept its verdure; and as Moses’ bush fired but not consumed; so fareth it with the righteous, "persecuted, but not forsaken," &c., #2Co 4:8,9, and at death a crown of life awaits him, quanta perennis erit, an imperishable crown, an inheritance undefiled, and that withereth not, #1Pe 5:4, that suffereth no wasting away but is reserved fresh and green for you in heaven; like the palm tree, which Pliny saith never loseth his leaf nor fruit; or like that Persian tree, whereof Theophrastus saith, that at the same time it doth bud, blossom, and bear fruit.

Ver. 8. God prepared a vehement east wind] The winds then blow not where they list, at random I mean, and without rule; but are both raised and laid again by God at his pleasure. He prepared, and sent out of his treasure, #Jer 10:13, this

Violent east wind] Heb. silent; so called either because it silenceth all other winds with its vehemence; or because when it blows men are made silent or deaf with its din, so that their tale cannot be heard. There are those who, by silent here, understand a still, low, gentle east wind, that cooled not the heat of the air inflamed by the sun, but rather added to it, and set it on; καυσωνα the Greeks interpret it; and this suits well with that which followeth.

And the sun beat upon the head of Jonah] Ussit et laesit, #Ps 121:6. So the poet,

“ feriente cacumina Sole.”

Chrysostom cannot but wonder, that whereas all fire naturally tendeth upwards, the sun should shoot his beams downwards, and affect these lower bodies with his light and heat. Whereby if he be troublesome to any Jonah, it is because God will have it so (for he is a servant, as his name שׁמשׁ in Hebrew importeth), without whom neither sun shineth nor rain falleth, #Mt 5:45, and who by afflictions (set forth in Scripture by the heat of the sun) bringeth back his stragglers, #Ps 119:75 Mt 13:6,21 Re 7:16 16:8,9 1Pe 4:12.

That he fainted] Though the head of man hath a manifold guard upon it, as being overlaid first with hair, skin, and flesh, like the threefold covering of the tabernacle; and then encompassed with a skull of bones like boards of cedar; and afterwards with diverse skins like silken curtains; and lastly enclosed with the yellow skin which Solomon calleth the golden bowl. #Ec 12:6

Yet Jonah fainted and wished in himself to die] Ita ut ab animo suo peteret mori, he required of his soul to go out of his body, Obtectus fuit maerore, ολιγοψυχησε (Sept.) Egredere o anima mea, as Hilarian said, but in a better sense he called for death, as his due; being, belike, of Seneca’s mind, that nature hath bestowed this benefit on men, that they may bereave themselves of life, whensoever they please, not considering that God is Lord of life and death, neither may any one lay down his life but when he calleth for it, as a soldier may not leave his station but at the command of his captain.

It is better for me to die than to live] Not so, Jonah, unless you were in a better mind. You should rather say, as Martinus on his sick bed did, Domino, si adhuc populotuo sum necessarius, Lord, if I may yet be serviceable to thee, and useful to thy people, I refuse not life and labour. Or as Mr Bolton on his death bed, desirous to be dissolved, when he was told by some bystanders, that though it was better for him to die than to live, yet the Church of God would miss him: he thus sweetly replied with David, #2Sa 15:25,26, "If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, but, if otherwise, lo here I am, let him do what seemeth good in his eyes" (Mr Bagshaw in the Life of Mr Bolton). A good man is born for the benefit of many, as Bucer’s physicians said to him (Melchior Adam), Non sibi se, sed multorum utilitati esse natum, neither may he desire to die out of discontent, as Jonah did for a trifle, wherein he was crossed; and rather than which to have been deprived of, Nineveh, that great city, by his consent should have been destroyed. That he never after this would return to his own country, but was so sick of the fret that he died of the sullens, as some Hebrews say, I cannot believe. {See Trapp on "Jon 4:3"}

Ver. 9. Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?] What? so soon blown up for a thing of nothing.? Tantaene animis coelestibus irae? (Eneid. lib. i.).

“ Diine hunc ardorem mentibus indunt

Euryale? an sua cuique deus fit dira libido?”

Knew not Jonah that to be angry without a cause was to be in danger of the judgment? #Mt 5:22, that it was a mortal sin, and not venial, as Papists falsely conclude from the text; which sets not forth a different punishment of rash anger, but a diverse degree of punishment? that it is the murder of the heart, as our Saviour there shows, and the fountain of the murder both of the tongue and of the hand? will he be like the foolish bee, who loseth her life to get revenge? {See Trapp on "Jon 4:4"}

And he said] Before he said nothing when reproved for his rash anger, #Jon 4:4, and that was best. Now he chats against God, laying the reins on the neck of his unruly passions and running riot. Who can understand his errors? and who can tell how often a servant of God may fall into a foul sin, if strongly inclined thereto by nature, or violently tempted by Satan and his instruments? Of Judah indeed it is expressly noted, that he knew his daughter-in-law Tamar again no more, #Ge 38:26. But what shall we say to Lot’s double incest? to Samson’s going down again to Gaza, #Jud 16:1? to Abraham’s twice denying his wife? to John’s twice adoring the angel, #Re 19:10 22:8? "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall": and let God’s people see that there be no way of wickedness found in them, that they allow not, wallow not in this guzzle: since hereby they lose not their ius haereditarium, but yet their ius aptitudinale, not their title, but yet their fitness to God’s kingdom; and, perhaps, their fulness of reward there, #2Jo 8.

And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death] A fearful outburst! Resist passion at the first rising up; else who knows whither it may transport us? Passions, saith one, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once in motion move themselves; and know no ground but the bottom. Jonah (saith another upon this text) slights admonition, riseth up in an animosity against it to a desperate degree of anger; such wild beasts are furious passions when we give them the reins. Thus he, Surely as the lion beateth himself with his own tail, and as sullen birds in a cage beat themselves to death, so could Jonah in this rage find in his heart to do and he shames not to tell God as much. It was therefore no ill wish of him that desired God to deliver him from that naughty man himself ( Domino libera me a malo homine meipso), from headlong and headstrong passions, which may not only dissweeten a man’s life, but shorten it. The Emperor Nerva died of a fever contracted by anger. Valentinian by an irruption of blood. Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, in a rage against his cupbearer, fell presently into a palsy, whereof he died. What disease Jonah died of I know not: but this I know, that in his heat he did and said enough here in this text to have made Almighty God resolve, as he did once against those muttering rebels in the wilderness, "As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you," #Nu 14:28. Thou shalt surely die, Jonah; out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, &c. But God chose rather to glorify himself in Jonah’s salvation than in his deserved destruction. Dat igitur poenitentiam, et postea indulgentiam (as that father prayed), he therefore first giveth him repentance, and then pardon, as appeareth partly by his recording these passages, and so shaming himself, as it were, before all the world; and partly also by his closing up his prophecy with silence; not striving with God for the last word, as Peter did with Christ, and would needs carry it, till the events of things confuted him, and he was glad to seek a corner to cry in, #Mt 26:35,75.

Ver. 10. Then said the Lord] He did not roar upon Jonah, nor run upon him with a drawn sword, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers, #Job 15:26; but gently said unto him, that he might the more admire his own impotence and God’s lenity; both which he studiously describeth all along this prophecy; a good sign of his sound repentance.

Thou hast had pity on the gourd] Here is the end, scope, and application of the parable; whereby it appeareth that God prepared not the gourd so much for the ease and use of Jonah’s body as for a medicine to his soul, convincing him of the iniquity both of his ways and wishes, by an argument drawn from the less to the greater; and confuting him by a comparison. Thou, a sinful and wretched man, hast had pity, or spared, and art sorry it perished. The gourd a sorry shrub, a mean mushroom, and none of thine either, but as lent thee; Alas, master, said they, it was but borrowed.

For the which thou hast not laboured] And so canst not be so fast affected to it. For all men love their own works rather than other men’s, as parents and poets, saith Aristotle (παντες αγαπωσι μαλλον τα εργα αυτων. Ethic. 1, 4); proving thereby, that those which have received their riches from their parents are more liberal than they which have gotten them by their own labour.

Neither madest it grow] Thou hast neither planted nor watered it, or any way added to it, by thine industry; for that also was no part of thy pains, but mine. Not that God laboureth about his creatures, for he doth all his work without tool or toil, #Isa 40:28; but this, as many other things in Scripture, are spoken after the manner of men, and so must be taken.

Which came up in a night] Heb. was the son of a night, not without a miracle; though Pliny speaks of the quick and wonderful growth of this shrub.

And perished in a night] Cito oriens, cito itidem moriens, quickly come, and as quickly gone; a fit emblem of earth’s happiness. Surely man walketh in a vain show; foenea quadam faelicitate temporaliter florens: they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. They are but ημεροβιοι; their life is but a day (and such a day too, as no man is sure to have twelve hours to it), as this gourd was but of one day’s continuance, as it came up in a night, so it perished the next; cito crevit, cito decrevit, repente prolatus, repente sublatus, quickly created, quickly destroyed, suddenly coming, suddenly cut down, of very small continuance (Tarnov.).

Ver. 11. And should not I spare Nineveh] I, who am all bowels ( Ego emphaticum. Mercer); I, who am a sin pardoning God, #Ne 10:31, none like me for that, #Mic 7:18; I, who am "the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort," #2Co 1:3, whose property and practice it is to comfort "those that are cast down," #2Co 7:6; I, who am so transcendently gracious, that thou hast even hit me in the teeth with it, #Jon 4:2; should not I be affected with the destruction of Nineveh?

That great city] {See Trapp on "Jon 1:2"} {See Trapp on "Jon 3:3"} {See Trapp on "Jon 3:4"} Yea, I will spare it, since it is ten thousand times more worth than that gourd of thine so much pitied.

Wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons] More than twelve myriads of innocent infants that cannot discern, &c., but live a kind of sensitive life, as not yet come to the use of reason, and are therefore matched and mentioned with beasts.

And also much cattle] A part of my care, which have had their share, as they could, in the common humiliation; and shall therefore share in the common preservation. And hast thou a heart to repine at this, and not to be set down with so good reason? Jonah is now sad and silenced; and although we hear no further of him, yet methinks I see him (Job-like) laying his hand upon his mouth in a humble yieldance; yea, putting his mouth in the dust, and saying, "Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further," #Job 40:5. "Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: for thou hast caused me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words!" #Job 6:24,25.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4