Jonah

🏛️ Historical context

Written after the exile, when some wanted to keep salvation within Israel. Nineveh, capital of Assyria, symbolized the cruellest enemy.

🔙 Background

The main character takes the name of an 8th-century BC prophet mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25.

🧭 Structure of the book

⭐ Key events and teachings

1. 1Jonah flees by ship toward Tarshish (ch. 1)
2. 2Three days in the belly of the fish (ch. 2), a sign of Jesus' resurrection (Mt 12:40)
3. 3Nineveh converts with fasting and penance (ch. 3)
4. 4Jonah is angry at God's mercy (ch. 4)
5. 5The lesson of the plant: God has compassion on all (4:10-11)

🏷️ Main themes

📖 Verses to memorize

• Jonah 1:3And Jonah rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord, and he went down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord,
• Jonah 2:3And he said: I cried out of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me: I cried out of the belly of hell, and thou hast heard my voice.
• Jonah 2:10But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to thee: I will pay whatsoever I have vowed for my salvation to the Lord.
• Jonah 3:10And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.
• Jonah 4:2And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord, is not this what I said, when I was yet in my own country? therefore I went before to flee into Tharsis: for I know that thou art a gracious and merciful God, patient, and of much compassion, and easy to forgive evil.

💭 For reflection

• Whom do I find it hard to want God to forgive?
• What is "the sign of Jonah" that Jesus speaks of?

Jonah runs from the mission God gives him, is swallowed by a great fish and finally preaches in Nineveh, which repents. The book shows that God's mercy reaches all peoples.