OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET
J O N A H.
THIS
book of Jonah, though it be placed here in the midst of the prophetical
books of scripture, is yet rather a history than a prophecy; one line
of prediction there is in it, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown; the rest of the book is a narrative of the preface to
and the consequences of that prediction. In the midst of the obscure
prophecies before and after this book, wherein are many things dark and
hard to be understood, which are puzzling to the learned, and are
strong meat for strong men, comes in this plain and pleasant
story, which is entertaining to the weakest, and milk for babes.
Probably Jonah was himself the penman of this book, and he, as Moses
and other inspired penmen, records his own faults, which is an evidence
that in these writings they designed God's glory and not their own. We
read of this same Jonah
2 Kings 14:25,
where we find that he was of Gath-hepher in Galilee, a city that
belonged to the tribe of Zebulun, in a remote corner of the land of
Israel; for the Spirit, which like the wind, blows where it
listeth, will as easily find out Jonah in Galilee as Isaiah at
Jerusalem. We find also that he was a messenger of mercy to Israel in
the reign of Jeroboam the second; for the success of his arms, in the
restoring of the coast of Israel, is said to be according to
the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah
the prophet. Those prophecies were not committed to writing, but
this against Nineveh was, chiefly for the sake of the story that
depends upon it, and that is recorded chiefly for the sake of Christ,
of whom Jonah was a type; it contains also very remarkable instances of
human infirmity in Jonah, and of God's mercy both in pardoning
repenting sinners, witness Nineveh, and in bearing with repining
saints, witness Jonah
Matthew Henry "Verse by Verse Commentary for 'Jonah' Matthew Henry Bible Commentary".
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