Commentary on the Prophet Jonah

^A there surely occurred other prophetic accounts in the times of Jonah, and the things concerning him are recorded usefully and economically. For it is a matter worthy of mention, I mean to have proclaimed to the Ninevites, and to have suffered in the meantime. And it describes in a way, in shadows, the mystery of the economy of our Savior, as Christ Himself said when speaking to the Jews. Therefore the mystery of Christ is indeed portrayed and fashioned for us in a way, as it is in the things relating to the divinely-inspired Jonah. Yet I think I ought to tell those who encounter this: whenever the account is fashioned for spiritual contemplation, and a person is set forth and taken as a type of Christ, it is necessary for the wise and learned man to test ^B what is to be held as consistent and consistent with the proposed goal, and what, on the other hand, is useful and necessary, and by nature most of all able to benefit the readers; as, for example, let the blessed Moses be set forth, who both stood before God for Israel beneath Mount Sinai, and became a mediator of God and men. For the Israelites, being fearful, besought Him saying: "Speak you to us, and let not God speak to us, lest we die." But that He indicated beforehand by a type the reconciliation that would be through Christ, God and Father Himself taught, saying thus: "They have spoken all things well. I will raise up to them a prophet from among their brethren like you," referring clearly to the mediator, and the advocate of the human race ^C before God, and the one announcing to all mortals the ineffable counsel of God the Father: "For I will put my words in his mouth, and I will speak to them all things that I shall command him." The divinely-inspired Moses was therefore taken as a type of Christ, but we shall not attribute all the things of Moses to Him, lest we be caught both doing and saying something unfitting. For Moses confessed that he was thin-voiced and slow-tongued, and incapable for the mission, and he prayed that another be appointed. But Christ is not slow of tongue, nor thin-voiced, like him; but He is Himself the great trumpet, by which name Isaiah ^D called Him: "And it shall be in that day: they shall sound the great trumpet." For the word of the Savior is announced everywhere and has become heard by those under the whole heaven. And knowing this, David said: "The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to the setting." Moses therefore mediates as a type of Christ, but in the fact that he is of obstructed tongue, he does not have the reason of a type. Aaron also was chosen to indicate beforehand Emmanuel, crowned with the adornments of the high priesthood, and entering into the Holy of Holies, and clothed in that glorious and admirable robe. Yet we shall not attribute all his things to Christ either. For he was not entirely [/end of page]

^A blameless, having made the calf in the wilderness for Israel. Therefore, not all things that are in the letter and types are useful for spiritual contemplation; but if the person of anyone should be portrayed to us as setting forth Christ, we shall reasonably pass over the human elements, and settle only on the necessary ones, everywhere turning that which is adapted for benefit toward the goal proposed. For so shall we understand it regarding Jonah. For he fashions, as it were, for us the mystery of Christ. Yet not all things that happened to them could be understood as useful and necessary for this. For example, he was sent to preach to the Ninevites, yet he sought to flee from the face of God, and is seen hesitating toward his mission. The Son of God and the Father was also sent to preach to the nations, yet He was not reluctant to the ministry, nor did He seek to flee from the face of God. The prophet exhorted those sailing with him, saying: "Take me, and cast me into the sea, and the sea will be hushed from you." He was also swallowed by the sea monster, then was brought forth on the third day. And after this he went to Nineveh, and fulfilled his ministry. But ^B he was grieved not a little when God had compassion on those of Nineveh. Christ also willingly underwent death; He remained in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, and then He rose again, and after this He went into Galilee, and commanded that the beginning of the preaching be made to the nations. Yet He was not grieved when He saw them saved unto repentance, as indeed Jonah was. Therefore, if we do not turn the entire account of the history to the goal of spiritual contemplation, let no one blame us. For just as bees flying about meadows and flowers always gather what is useful for the making of honey, so the wise interpreter, searching the holy and divinely inspired ^C Scripture, always gathering and constructing what makes for the clarification of the mysteries of Christ, will produce a teaching that is quite fitting and blameless.

CHAP. I.

And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amathi, saying: Arise, and go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach in it, for the cry of its wickedness has come up to me.

^D II. Considering the ministry and mission of the prophet Jonah, and very reasonably so, at the time that which is praised through the voice of the blessed Paul comes into mind: "Is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the nations? Since God is one." And Peter, having learned this by experience, has proclaimed it to us, saying: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him." For He Himself fashioned the heaven and the earth and all that is in them, and created man in the beginning according to his own image and liken-

- ^B ness, so that, by maintaining his studies in virtue, he might lead a life brilliant in holiness and blessedness, and might have a rich participation in those same gifts. Next, he was led astray unto sin, being deceived by the wicked contrivances of the devil; and for this reason he became accursed and subject to corruption. For Christ was pre-ordained and foreknown ^C before the foundation of the world for the restoration of all things. For it pleased God and the Father "to re-establish all things in Himself, both those in heaven and those on the earth." But such renowned works were preserved for the Only-Begotten when He had put on our nature and shone upon the world in the flesh. Yet, that God necessarily exercised care even for those who had been led astray, even before the times of His coming, and that He freely looked upon those who had tripped up out of ignorance, He wished to testify by the very events themselves. Hence, He commanded the blessed prophet to proceed to Nineveh. It was a Persian city, situated to the east and renowned; and, as the prophet Jeremiah says, "it is a land of graven images." ^D For there were very many cities bordering on Judea, and committed to the worship of idols. Tyre, indeed, and Sidon, and all of Galilee of the Gentiles worshipped the works of their own hands, and among them were to be seen kinds of demons, and altars, and shrines innumerable. Why therefore, I ask, having passed over those near at hand, does He send the prophet to Nineveh, which lies furthest away, and in which, as I have already said, the multitude was most uncultivated, and inclined with an irresistible impulse toward the worship of the sun, the stars, and fire? For beyond all reason, it attributed the fear of religion to impostures and tricks hateful to God. For it was said to her through the voice of Nahum: "O beautiful and graceful harlot, mistress of sorceries." I think, for my part, that God, who knows all things, wished to demonstrate profitably even to those of old that even those who have been most estranged and caught in the snares of error would at some time be gathered, as if into a net, unto the knowledge of the truth, even if they were exceedingly fierce and stubborn and had gone very far into unruliness. For the word of God is not insufficient to be able to nourish the mind and to persuade one to learn those things through which he might become wise. And hear Him saying to Jeremiah, at one time: "Behold, I have given my words into your mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them"; and at another time, again: "Are not my words like fire burning, says the Lord, and like an axe cutting stone?" Jonah, therefore, was not sent to the Ninevites in vain, but so that there might be a pre-demonstration of the gentleness inherent in God, and of that which would, in due time, be granted even to those who had wandered out of ignorance; and at the same time, the event served for the condemnation of Israel. For it was being reproved as intractable, as without feeling, as one that cared little for the laws of God. For the Ninevites, upon the single proclamation of one man, were changed without delay toward choosing repentance, although they were ailing with very many errors and sins. But these, having despised Moses and the prophets, despised Christ himself, even though He joined to His teaching admirable works by which it was just that they should be persuaded, and that most easily. Since God, when

being by nature God, became man, in order to save the whole world under heaven, and before all others, them. And that the matter might be, with good reason, a source of conviction for those from Israel, Christ himself clarifies it, saying: "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here." But in what way is there "more" in Christ than in Jonas? For the one merely threatened the Ninevites with destruction, whereas Christ, striking men with astonishment because of the ineffable efficacy of His miracles, was an object of wonder. For a miracle, accompanying the word, is always a sort of engine that draws toward faith ^B. Therefore, with the highest providence, Jonas is sent to preach to those who dwelt at Nineveh, because the cry of their wickedness had ascended to the God of all. For He is ignorant of nothing at all, but when He is moved to an inspection, or visitation, of the things that are sins, then it is said that the cry from their deeds has ascended to Him. For He is the judge of all things as God. It is said that even the blood of Abel cries out against the murder of Cain, and the wildness of the vileness of the cities of Sodom also.

"And Jonas rose up to flee unto Tharsis from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tharsis: and he gave the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tharsis from the presence of the Lord."

III.

^A him, as in the more ancient saints, there was not a sufficiently great opinion of God. For some thought that the power and empire of the God of all was bound by the borders of Judea alone, and that He was confined as if in a enclosure, excluded from other regions. Therefore, the divine Jacob, once departing from his paternal home and traveling to Laban in Mesopotamia, and spending the night in a certain place, and sleeping with a stone placed under his head as was his custom, saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it, and the Lord standing by it. Upon waking, he said: “The Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” ^B I think, therefore, that this blessed prophet, having considered something of this kind within himself, had departed from Judea and was withdrawing to the Greek cities. But that he was reluctant, and because he did not wish to readily fulfill the task imposed upon him—this was the cause of his flight—is something we shall learn from his own words, since he went later and preached. And because the result did not correspond to his prophecy, he received no small grief, so that he even said: “O Lord, are not these my words when I was still in my own land? Therefore, I anticipated by fleeing to Tharsis, because I knew that you are merciful and compassionate, long-suffering, and of great mercy, and repenting over evils. And now, Lord ^C Master, take my life from me, for it is good for me to die rather than to live.” For, as a prophet, he was not ignorant of the end of his ministry; he feared, however, lest perhaps, if his proclamation did not find an outcome, he might be punished with death by the Ninevites—who were ignorant of the kindness of the God who has mercy upon them—and be removed from their midst as a buffoon, an impostor, a liar, and one who had persuaded them to vain labor. For barbarians are always headlong to anger, and they act most easily like bulls, even if no suitable occasion for their madness is provided.

VERS. 4, 5. *And the Lord stirred up a spirit upon the sea, and there was a great tempest in the sea, and the ship was in danger of being broken up; and the sailors ^D were afraid, and they cried out each to his own god; and they cast the vessels that were in the ship into the sea, so that it might be lightened of them.*

IV. With God so ordering it, and the storms of wild winds churning the sea, the ship is tossed amid the waves. Terror seizes the passengers, and they now speak of their extreme destruction, with the merchant vessel creaking and its joints nearly loosened as it sinks. The crowd of sailors, resorting to customary aids, unloads the ship so that it might rise high above the waves and thus subsequently be carried on a favorable course. A great proof, moreover, of the tempest is that the sailors themselves, struck by terror, without intermission seek help from their gods, as if their safety were already despaired of.

Vers. 6. *But Jonah had gone down to the concave part of the ship, and was sleeping, and snoring. And the boatswain approached him and said to him: Why do you snore? Arise, call upon your God, if perhaps God may save us, and we may not perish.*

^A V. Sluggishness in offering prayers when dangers are impending hardly befits prophetic foresight, nor does it seem to be the behavior of one who is sound asleep when the time and the urgency of the business—for the sake of which it would be more fitting to appease God, the Lord of all—call one to labor. Whence we may understand that this sleep occurred before the tempest had arisen, and that it is the custom of those accustomed to deep quiet to go down into the inmost part of the ship. For it has always been dear and desirable to the saints to withdraw from delights and, separated from the crowds, to abide in solitude, just as Jeremiah also says: *It is good for a man, he says, when he has borne the yoke from his youth. He shall sit alone, and shall be silent, because he has taken it upon himself.* ^B Idem, again, concerning the multitude of the incredulous: *O Lord Almighty, I have not sat in the assembly of those who play, but I feared because of your hand. I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness.* To sit alone, I believe, signifies a quiet life, freed from the cares and anxieties of fleeting things, and one that avoids the company of others who have given themselves over to pleasures and bodily delights. The prophet, therefore, falls asleep, not because he disdains what is proper, but, as I have already said, before the outburst of the storms. The boatswain, however, prods him, saying that he ought rather to call upon his God. For it always bothers those ^C who are in danger to see anyone who appears to be indifferent to terrors and languishing in sloth at an inappropriate time.

Vers. 7. *And everyone said to his neighbor: Come, let us cast lots, and let us know for whose sake this evil is upon us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.*

VI. The sailors undertake a matter very curious, and something unaccustomed and new, that they should insist by means of lots to discover for what cause God is angry. Yet this also is usefully ordained, so that he who thought he could flee from the face of God might be made manifest. For the lot falls upon him, and he is seen enduring the conviction that comes from the event. For he was afraid, as is likely, to make the confession that his own reflection should have instigated earlier. It is good, therefore, and wise for those who wish to keep the saying: *Be not ashamed to confess your sins.* ^D

Vers. 8-10. *And they said to him: Tell us, for whose sake is this evil upon us? What is your business, and from where do you come, and where are you going, and from what country and from what people are you? And he said to them: I am a servant of the Lord, and I fear the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. And the men feared with a great fear, and said to him: Why have you done this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he told them.*

^A VII. They are curious not without purpose, having already found the cause of so great an evil, though they did not yet clearly perceive the nature of the transgression. Because they were idolaters, they bade him tell them what his occupation was, from what region and fatherland he originated, and from what people he came, wishing, I think, to learn which God he had offended: for each of the travelers had his own, and there was no one God common to all. They thought that if they placated the deity who was angry with him, they would ward off the hardships caused by the storm. But when the prophet declared himself a servant of the God who fashioned heaven and earth, and claimed that he worshipped Him alone, they understood immediately that he had fled from the face of God, and they understood how. For it was not permitted for Jews to depart from the region allotted to them, nor to visit foreigners or strangers, nor to enter cities accustomed ^B to idol worship. For this was considered a disgrace among them, and it was not exempt from the suspicion of defection from their ancestral religion. He therefore seemed to have sinned against the Law, and to be liable for a crime and punishment. And so, when the Lord clearly confirmed that the Jews would be deprived of that salvation which is acquired through faith, unless they resolved to embrace the light of Him who was still present and dwelling in the world—for He said: "Yet a little while I am with you, and I go to Him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come" (John vii, 33, 34)—the Jews, taunting Him with ^C defection to the Gentiles, asked foolishly: "Whither will this man go, that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?" (ibid. 35). For they mark as a disgrace, as something foolish and utterly remote from their usage and custom, for anyone to mingle with the peoples of the nations. Since, therefore, he had not remained within the borders of Judea, but was sailing with them to Tarsus, they are moved by suspicion and conjecture that perhaps he is repudiating his life according to the Law, and, having resigned himself to the customs of the Gentiles, has attempted a flight from the face of God.

Verse 11, 12. And they said unto him: What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. And he said unto them: Take me up, and cast ^D me into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.

VIII. They feared the sea, which was raging intolerably against them, but they dreaded the God of the Hebrews no less; for, although they were foreigners, they were not ignorant of how great His power and glory were. But because he had called himself a servant of God, they afterwards hesitate and are divided in their opinions. For they fear to take the life of a man, dreading the wrath of the almighty God. And as the waves rush in, no less than before, they are necessarily in anguish concerning their own safety and preservation.

^A Wherefore they pray that He may reveal what they must do for the calming of the storm, for the settling of the waves, and for their escape from the ultimate destruction. What, then, does the prophet do? He confesses his own offence, and is ashamed that he has offended, and condemns his own bad counsel. He says, "Take me up, and cast me into the sea." 374 By these words, he professed that they ought to demand at their own hands the punishment for his refusal to go on his mission. For he knew that the swell of the sea is, as it were, appeased by a sacrifice made to it, and that if they took the one they were seeking, the ship would be calmed and the sea would cease from its attack once it had received the guilty party.

VERS. 13-15. *And the men strove to return to the land, and were not able, for the sea went and rose up more against them. And they cried to the Lord, and said: We beseech thee, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. And they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea, and it ceased from its raging.*

IX. The prophet pronounced the sentence of death upon himself, and thought to remove their terror and fear at the risk of his own life. ^B They, however, were very timid and slow to bring death upon him, desiring to save the servant of God and to put him ashore alive, and in that way rather to shake off the burden of divine wrath by which they were pressed. For this reason they struggled to bring the ship to the shore, but their attempts were vain; and as the wind increased and tossed the merchant vessel more turbulently, there was no resisting the waves. Therefore, they subsequently besought God, propitiating Him to forgive them, as those who did not wish to kill; but as if by His own judgments they were permitted, they were forced ^C to commit Jonas to the sea, as indeed they did. When it had received him, the sea was at last calmed, spread forth a tranquility, and brought back to the sailors the hope of safety; and, yielding in every way to the divine will and serving the Dominical commands, it quickly appeared mild and manageable.

VERS. 16. *And the men feared the Lord with a great fear, and sacrificed sacrifices to the Lord, and made vows.*

X. They perceive no small profit, believing that God is one by nature, even though they had differed in absurd errors and had imagined that there were a thousand gods in the world. Wherefore they sacrifice to the natural, and only, and true God, having abandoned their own, and having bidden farewell to all those by whom they had been deceived in offering worship, and to whom they had stolen the glory due to God. Moreover, they promise vows, although they had been accustomed to do this to the marine demons. For the Greeks 375 hand down the tradition that the empire of the sea ^D rests with a certain Neptune; for all things among them are myths, impostures, and horrible insanities. But we, celebrating with praises Him who is God by nature, say to Him truly: "Thou rulest the power of the sea," and the rest.

^A

CAP. II.

XI. The Lord commands the sea-monster, and it obeys. For for Him to will that anything should be brought to completion is law, and it is the fulfillment of that thing, and it has the power of law. For we do not say that God, the Lord of all, gave a command to the sea-monster as if He were speaking to us ourselves or to the holy angels, sounding into their minds in some way what was to be done and placing into their hearts a knowledge of what He willed. For that would be of great simplicity, and little short of madness, to suppose that the God of all acts toward brute animals in such a manner. But if it be said that He commands ^B plainly either beasts, or elements, or any other creature, I maintain that His good pleasure is a law and a divine command to it. For all things yield to His nod, and the mode of obedience is altogether ineffable to us, though most clear to Him. Jonah is therefore swallowed by the sea-monster, but is unharmed, and he remains within it for three days and as many nights. This matter may perhaps seem to some base and unseemly. For, first of all, those who do not know God by nature and in truth do not believe this; then, those who are bound by diabolical frauds and deceits. They will say, furthermore: "How could he be saved having been inside a sea-monster? How, being swallowed, was he not consumed, or how did he endure the innate heat, and how did he live surrounded by such humidity in the belly? Nay, why was he not cooked and digested like food?" For the flesh is something very weak, and most easily consumed. We reply, therefore, that what happened may justly be held to be truly beyond opinion, beyond reason, and above custom. But if God is declared to be the author of this noble miracle, who will be the one to doubt further? For nothing is more powerful than the Divine will, by which the nature of things is changed without any difficulty into ^C whatever He may desire; and there is nothing which can resist His ineffable nod. For that which is by its own nature subject to destruction will, if He wills it, escape destruction; and that which is fixed and unshaken, and safe from corruption, will perish at a slight impulse. For the nature of things, I think, is the will of the Creator. Nevertheless, this also should be known: that the Greeks, in the fables composed by them, tell that Hercules, the son of Alcmena and Zeus, was indeed swallowed by a sea-monster, but was returned from it, the innate heat of the fish having merely denuded his head of hair. Lycophron mentions this history. And this man is one of those whom they themselves admire as eminent. For he says about him:

"The three-night lion, whom once with its jaws The savage-toothed sea-hound of Triton grasped." ^D

But we do not seek the proof and faith of divine mysteries from the figments of those people; yet we make mention of them appropriately, that we may refute the incredulous, since [they believe] that their own accounts of such narrations are not to be cast aside.

^A Since I deem it necessary to agree with what is miraculous and still occurring by the will of God, come, let us say: even in the womb an infant floats in natural fluid, and is, as it were, buried in the belly of the one carrying it, and cannot breathe; yet it lives and is preserved, nourished miraculously by the nods of God. But no human reasoning could attain to such things, nor could the things of God be mastered by any. "For who has known the mind of the Lord?" as it is written. Or who could know the ways of the miraculous? Or whose mind could entirely grasp things that transcend the power of speech? It is therefore hazardous to disbelieve, even if God performs something far beyond [the power of] speech; rather, we should accept it as true, avoiding untimely scrutiny.

I say, however, that since the prophet was assumed as a type of the ministry understood in Christ, it is necessary to add: the whole earth was in danger, the human race was being tempest-tossed, all but overwhelmed by the waves of sin, engulfed by a terrible and unbearable pleasure, and by destruction rising up like a surge, and by fierce winds bursting forth—I mean the devil and the wicked powers under him and with him. ^B And since we lay in these miseries, the Creator, God the Father, took pity on us and sent from heaven the Son, who, having become incarnate and having arrived on the earth that was in danger and tempest-tossed, voluntarily surrendered himself to death, that he might quiet the surge, and the sea might grow calm, and the wave might fall, and the surge might cease. For we have been saved in the death of Christ. And the winter has passed, the rain has gone, the waves have been calmed, the violence of the winds has been loosened, and a deep serenity has henceforth been spread—and we are in an intellectual calm, since Christ suffered for us. You have something similar to this in the evangelical scriptures. For once, the boat of the apostles was crossing the sea of Tiberias; then, as a violent wind had risen over the waters, they were suffering an unbearable storm. ^C And enduring the final danger, they wake the sleeping Christ who was with them, crying out clearly: "Master, save us, we are perishing." And he, having been awakened, the text says, rebuked the sea, saying with authority, "Peace, be still," and he saved the disciples. Thus, what was happening was a type of what happened to human nature. For through him, as I said, we have been delivered from the corruption of death, and from sin, and from passions; the former winter has been chased away, and our affairs have shifted toward serenity.

And Jonas prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the whale, and said: I cried in my affliction to the Lord my God, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell you heard my cry, you heard my voice. ^D Unharmed, and using the whale as a home,

being of sound mind ^A and in no way injured in body or understanding, he perceives the divine help. And knowing God to be benign and merciful, and not ignorant that this happened to him because he had been burdened by his ministry, he turns to prayer, sends up a prayer of thanksgiving, and at the same time confesses the glory of his Savior, marvels at His power, and proclaims His gentleness. For he said that his prayer was received, and this, I think, he understood by the prophetic spirit. And the phrase, "out of the belly of hell," is the same as "out of the belly of the whale," for he aptly likens the beast to hell and death, since it is indeed known to kill and savagely swallow those it captures.

"You cast me into the depths of the heart of the sea, and rivers compassed me about. All your billows and your waves have passed over me. And I said: I am cast away from the sight of your eyes."

XIII. He narrates his fall in many ways, ^B referring it, as it were, to things above, and bearing witness to the divine will that it is easily able to overcome every kind of evil. For he affirms that he had been in the very recesses of the sea, and in the confusion of many waters, with rivers of waves beating upon him, and that he had fallen into such calamity that he thought the divine eyes were utterly turned away from him, and that he must despair of salvation. For it is a very grave and destructive thing not to be looked upon by God. Accordingly, David also prayed, saying: "Turn not your face away from me; nor decline in your anger from your servant." And the necessity of suffering the divine wrath will surely follow such turning away; nay, even anger will surely arise and precede the turning away.

"Shall I add looking to your holy temple?"

XIV. He knows that he has been kept by the power of God, and has been judged worthy of help from above, and has been saved, and that too in a whale and in the belly of the beast, ^C unexpectedly and contrary to reason. Yet he doubts, not without cause, whether he will indeed be delivered and restored to the light. But he considers it most desirable and truly to be sought with many prayers to see again the divine temple, and to sing praises to God his Savior. He wishes to obtain such a benefit, testifying, as I said, that God is able to perform and accomplish all things excellently.

"The water has compassed me about even to my soul; the deep has closed me in around; the deep has closed me in my extremes. My head has entered into the fissures of the mountains; I went down to the earth, whose bars are everlasting. And let my life ascend from corruption to you, O Lord my God."

XV. Being saved by an ineffable power from God, he desires to sing more illustrious hymns of thanksgiving. He narrates in detail what happened to him, ^D and teaches exactly how he was encircled by calamity; he then joins to this how he was saved. That he had therefore been in the sea, and in a great deep, and in the fissures of the mountains, with the whale entering the rocks and...

the submarine caves, he was not ignorant as a prophet. ^A And he says that he descended into the land, "whose bars [are] everlasting," that is to say, Hades; not that he had gone there—for we shall not find that he was dead—but because the magnitude of the dangers and the burden of what had befallen him was in no way lacking to make it seem that he had even died and arrived in Hades itself, from whence no one could depart, nor could he who is once caught therein by any means return. For I suppose this is what is meant by saying "having the bars as everlasting," as though unbreakable, and never by anyone conquered, that is, dissolved. But that he did not die, but lived on in the whale, and was in it, having suffered nothing towards death or corruption, ^B would be easily shown by the fact that he held hopes of being saved again. For this very reason he says: "Let my life ascend from corruption, O Lord my God." For he prays to be brought forth into the light, and as it were to emerge from the belly of the whale as from Hades.

"When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord: and let my prayer come unto thee into thy holy temple."

XVI. To those desiring to excel, labor is not unprofitable, nor can affliction be considered burdensome or grievous. David will be a witness, saying: "In my tribulation I called upon the Lord," and another of the holy prophets: "Lord, in tribulation I remembered thee." ^C The divine Paul also thought that tribulation should be embraced and highly commended, on account of the virtue, of course, that blossoms from it. For he says that "Tribulation worketh patience," and the rest. When, therefore, the soul of the prophet was failing, that is, when he was enduring labor in extreme dangers, he again does something profitable. For he did not, as some do, immediately fall into despondency and complain of divine judgments, but mindful of Him who saves, he cries out to Him and thirsts for His aid; and not being ignorant of His gentleness and the preeminence of His power, he offered petitions to Him, beseeching that his life be rescued from death and corruption. It is, then, a great and ^D admirable thing not to be despondent in afflictions, but rather to appease the Master with supplications and entreaties, and to seek from Him the revocation of the evil and the end of the calamity.

"They that regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I with the voice of praise and thanksgiving will sacrifice unto thee. I will pay thee that which I have vowed for my salvation unto the Lord."

XVII. For others indeed, he says, not knowing Thee, the Master and Creator of all, being entangled in the snares of vanity and having offered worship to false-named gods, and feeding their hope on watching birds, and being wicked, they do not ask for mercy from Thee, nor have they ever entered into such a hope. But I, never as they, but knowing Thee as Helper, good and ready to show mercy. Therefore with voice and prayers I will confess to Thee, he says, and canticled as it were a certain

most fragrant incense I shall offer to Thee. I shall perform actions full of thanksgiving—namely, spiritual sacrifices, glorification, and praise. And I will gladly discharge those vows that are salutary; that is, whatever is saving for me and conducive to my soul. And these are obedience to every good pleasure and the fulfillment of the prophetic ministry, with all hesitation and faint-heartedness removed. ^A

The prophet, then, prays while hidden in the whale. And while he is a human type, the true image of the matter is Christ, who, before the precious cross, appeared with the passion already all but rushing upon Him, as He thus prayed to the heavenly Father: "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." ^B A great horror surrounded Him and, as it were, pressed upon Him. Whether, however, when He descended into the subterranean regions, He spoke something human, He knows Himself; for it is dangerous to affirm this. Yet it is established that the holy Peter ascribes to Him the voice of David: "Because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption." For on the third day He rose again, "as it was impossible that He, being by nature life, should be held by the bonds of death."

VERS. 11. *And the Lord commanded the whale, and it cast forth Jonah upon the dry land.* ^C

XVIII. Again the whale is commanded, moved by a certain divine and inexplicable power of God to His nod and will. And indeed it releases the prophet from its bowels, not without fruit from his suffering, but rather incited by experience itself and rightly taught that it is dangerous to oppose the Dominical decrees.

CAP. III.

VERS. 1, 2. *And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying: Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach in it the preaching the former, which I have spoken to thee.* ^D

XIX. Much more eager and prompt, he is commanded again to go to Nineveh and to proclaim the same thing he had received in his instructions before—namely, "For the cry of its wickedness is gone up to Me." And although I have just now spoken those things which pertain to Christ, yet I will not be burdened to say them again. For it is written that "To say the same things is for me indeed not tiresome, but for you necessary." Therefore, before He was lifted up on the precious cross, it is certain that Christ hesitated to impart the discourse of the evangelical oracles even to the Gentiles. Wherefore He most clearly says: "I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And He commanded to the holy disciples themselves: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles," and what follows. But He was in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

^A He came to the springs of the sea, and in the footprints of the abyss He walked. He entered into the fissures of the mountains, and descended into the earth, "whose bars are everlasting." Then, having despoiled Hades, and proclaimed [the message] to the spirits there, and opened the immovable gates, He rose to life again. For His life ascended from destruction, and thus He was seen, before others, by the women who were seeking Him in the garden. Then, having said, "Hail," He commanded them to tell the holy disciples that He goes before them into Galilee. Then, at last, His word came also to the Gentiles through the blessed apostles. Then He preached to those who were wandering "according to the former preaching." For He did not instruct Israel with certain commandments before His death, and those from the Gentiles with others after it; but the Gospel is one for all, and the knowledge of the divine apostles is altogether one and the same; and there did not exist one [knowledge] among those from Israel and another among us, who are called from the Gentiles through faith unto sanctification.

VERS. 3, 4. And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, as the Lord spoke. Now Nineveh was a city great to God, as of a journey of three days. And Jonah began to enter into the city, as of a journey of one day. And he preached, and said: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

XX. The prophet is sent, and girded with invincible zeal he sets out to perform his duties. For he enters, and that quite spiritedly, into the foreign Nineveh, to obey the divine will. Since the city was broad, and extended to such a size that if one chose to travel around it, he would require a journey of three days, he walks it in one day, or, as it seems to others, having accomplished the path of one day within it, he speaks the word of ^C divine proclamation. And the prophet was surely a wonder, a Hebrew man, and coming from a foreign land, and perhaps known to none of the inhabitants there, walking through the middle of the city, crying aloud and saying: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." And here, observe this again for me and consider it carefully. For the God of all commanded to proclaim concerning Nineveh, "That the cry of her wickedness has ascended to me," but the prophet, being in it, says: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." What then shall we say? Does he speak falsely, and has he spoken from his own heart, and not rather from the mouth of the Lord, as some think? We do not assert this, but rather that prophets often signify the manner of their own mission. For that the Master ^D had spoken to him: "Arise, and go to Nineveh, and preach in it that the cry of her wickedness has ascended to me," we clearly heard at the very beginning of the prophecy, but that he himself had said anything to God, we have not known. However, we shall find him saying: "O Lord, are not these my words?" and the rest. You see how very much is passed over in silence, and spoken secretly by God, and similarly spoken to God by the prophet? It is consequent to

the voices of the saints to verify the truth. For those who possess the Spirit of truth in abundance will least of all speak falsely. ^A

Verse 5. And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

XXI. The expression has profound significance. "The men from Nineveh believed," he says, that is, those from the city always condemned for every kind of wickedness; in which was seen a vast and innumerable multitude of idols, many thousands of shrines, and where forbidden arts were practiced. For magical chants and lying divinations were honored there, and in the observation of the stars, curiosity was held in place of the highest wisdom, and glory was heaped upon whoever showed himself ready for any wicked deed whatsoever. But they believed in God from the least to the greatest, that is, the illustrious and the obscure, the nobles and the commoners, those abounding in riches and luxuries, and those laboring under the burden of poverty. They had one single care: to obey the words of the prophet. A truly admirable thing, and great is the praise of those who believed. ^B For they followed immediately, not sluggishly, the One calling them henceforth to better things, and they subjected their delicate neck to divine preachings, and that at the word of a stranger, and only one, and not previously known, inviting them to repentance. And the Ninevites indeed conducted themselves in this way. But the senseless Israel is disobedient to the Law; he mocks Moses, he considers the oracles of the prophets as nothing, and he even killed the Lord, nor did he obey Christ Himself. Therefore, the state of the Ninevites was better, a fact which God, the Lord of all, shows to be true, speaking somewhere thus to Ezekiel: "Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel: thou art not sent to a people of strange language, nor of a heavy tongue. Had I sent thee to such, they would have hearkened unto thee. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they are contentious and hard-hearted." ^C For the foreigners, and those of deep lips, and proud of speech—that is, the Ninevites—accorded honor to the oracle and applied themselves to repentance without delay; but contentious Israel has revered neither the Law itself, nor the Lord of the prophets. ^D

Verses 6-9. And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he took off his robe from him, and put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And it was proclaimed in Nineveh by the king, and by all his nobles, saying: Let neither man, nor beast, nor oxen, nor sheep taste anything, nor let them feed, nor drink water. And men and beasts were covered with sackcloth, and they cried out to God earnestly, and turned every one from their evil way and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying: Who knows if the Lord will repent and be entreated, and will turn from the anger of his fury, and we shall not perish?

and from the iniquity that is in their hands, saying: "Who knows if the Lord will repent, and be moved to compassion, and turn away from the fury of His anger, and we shall not perish?"

^B XXII. He greatly amplifies the praise of obedience, and admires still more the readiness of those called to repentance for their compliance. For as soon as they heard the words of the prophet, even he who was honored with the scepter and was most eminent in splendor and glory, abandons the royal throne, bids farewell to his customary robes, casts off the purple, and puts on sackcloth—that is, he adopts a garment of mourning. And by sitting in ashes, he gives a sign to the others that it is necessary both to abstain from food and, by unceasing petitions, to appease God and ask for His mercy. Very wise, then, were the Ninevites, who combined with their fasting the turning away from wickedness. For this would be the true and blameless mode of repentance. But because Israel, being unskilled in such things, sometimes observed a most irrational and profane fast, God commanded the prophet to lift up his voice and announce to them that "not this is the fast that I have chosen," says the Lord. And for what reason He has made this known, He immediately adds: "For in the days of your fasts you find your own wills, and you oppress all who are under your hand; you fast for contentions and fights, and you strike with fists the humble." The Ninevites, therefore, are better, performing for God a pure and blameless fast. For the sacred Scripture has testified that "each one turned from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands." And the action was both rational and sensible. They believed that God would repent and stop the things that come from anger. But the word "repent," he says, is for "He will be willing." And if He sees those who have turned from wickedness to good, He Himself also will shift to the tranquility and loving-kindness most dear to Him. For He is good by nature. Nevertheless, He brings penalties upon those who transgress, and, to those who have uncontrollably inclined toward wantonness, like a bit that pulls back vigorously and shifts them toward obedience, He applies the things that come from ^C anger. Observe, then, how the Ninevites indeed say: "Who knows if God will repent, and turn away from the fury of His anger, and we shall not perish?" But the wise Israel, so to speak, instructed by the Law, because the Master is good and gentle, does not endure to understand. For they said in their ignorance: "Our errors and our iniquities are upon us, and we pine away in them, and how shall we live?" Yet they heard God saying clearly: "By conversion, be converted from your evil way, and why will you die, O house of Israel?" What the Ninevites did, by their turning toward better things, they softened the anger hanging over them; though the king also commanded the human beings and even the cattle to share in the grief, being deprived of food and drink, and as it were compelled to mourn. And the matter was excessive, not as if necessity required it, or as if God ^D required of the beasts [the pains of repentance]. And this the Scripture marked,

^A showing the magnitude of the repentance of the Ninevites. I know well that some are ashamed of this, and affirm that by "beasts" are to be understood those among men who have the least use of reason. And the reasoning is true, and it might be well enough at times if it were understood in this way by some. But to lay open the sense of what is proposed, it might perhaps fit better to say that the excellence of the repentance was marked out by the fact that even the labor of the beasts was prescribed.

VERS. 10. *And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways. And God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did it not.*

XXIII. The Master is swift to mercy, and saves those who repent, and immediately releases them from their ancient sins, and when men cease to sin, He Himself also ceases to be angry, and thinks better thoughts. And because He perceives that they have applied their mind to good reasonings, He descends to gentleness, and puts off their destruction, and deems them worthy of pardon. For He speaks truly when He says: *Why will you die, O house of Israel?* says the Lord. *For I do not desire the death of him who dies, but rather that he should turn from his way, and his soul should live.* But when He speaks of "evil," do not understand it as wickedness, but rather as the anger from which the affliction comes. For our God, who loves virtue, is not a worker of evil.

CAP. IV.

VERS. 1-3. *And Jonah was troubled with a great trouble, and was confused, and prayed to the Lord, and said thus: O Lord, were not these my words when I was yet in my own land? Therefore I made haste to flee to Tharsis, because I knew that Thou art a merciful and compassionate God, longsuffering, and of great mercy, and repenting of the evils. And now, O Lord Master, take my soul from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.*

XXIV. After God had bestowed mercy upon those who had warded off the punishments coming from divine anger by performing repentance, and the time had already passed after which it was reasonable for the predicted things to happen, and yet none of those things happened, the prophet was filled with no little sorrow: not because the city had escaped destruction (for this would have been the action of a malignant and envious man, and in no way fitting for a saint), but because he seemed to be a false speaker and a babbler or trifler, ^D and to have terrified them in vain, and to have spoken according to his own opinion and not at all from the mouth of the Lord, as it is written. Some think, however, that the prophet was saddened for other certain secret reasons. For after he learned, they say, that the flock from the Gentiles was being called, and that Israel, as if its times were already finished, would be set aside, he was greatly sorrowful, and was tormented over his kinsmen who were all but lost. But he himself forbids us to think this, confessing most openly that he had fled to Tharsis (but because [he fled] the mission...

^A for he knew clearly that “He is kind and compassionate, and repentant of evils.” For since You were such, he says, how did You command me to proclaim to them the destruction in vain?) And he is faint-hearted as a man, [using] such words as these against himself, and while remaining in the land of the Judeans, he is already exhorting [them] to die, and makes a lamentation that is nearly beyond measure regarding the divine economy. But the matter is dangerous and not worthy of a holy mind. For if no one of sound mind would reproach the physicians of bodies because they adapt the remedies most useful for wounds, how could anyone reasonably cry out against God, who knows all things, and who always devises the truly appropriate and most useful healing for our minds? For He is the physician of spirits, sometimes by labors, and at other times by goods ^B bestowed out of gentleness, soothing the ferocity of the passions within us.

“And the Lord said to Jonas, ‘Are you very grieved?’” And Jonas went out of the city, and sat opposite the city. And he made for himself a tabernacle there, and sat under it in the shade, until he should see what would happen to the city.

XXV. He does not allow the prophet’s mind to be drowned in despondency, but restores it as if it were failing. He is very kind, yet He reproves his sadness in a useful way. For, I think, He implies nothing else at all by asking and saying, “Are you very grieved?” but is also all but rebuking him, being grieved and not understanding the purpose of the divine judgments. For when the days had already passed by after which it was likely that the things foretold would be brought to completion, and yet the wrath was still ineffective, he perceives indeed that God had shown mercy, nevertheless he does not depart entirely from hope; he opines that while a delay of the evil had been granted to them, since they had chosen to repent, yet there would certainly be something resulting from the wrath, for those who had shown labors ^C in their repentance did not match their offenses. For what would a three-day sweat profit those who were buried in every manner of wicked action and were held fast by such terrible transgressions? Reflecting on these things within himself, as is likely, he departs from the city, and waits to see what will happen to them. For he expected that it would either perhaps collapse, shaken by an earthquake, or be burned up by fire, just as Sodom was. And he constructs for himself a shelter hastily; but the dwelling was a tabernacle.

“And the Lord God commanded a gourd, and it rose up over the head of Jonas, that it might be a shadow over his head, to shade him from his ills.” And Jonas rejoiced over the gourd with great joy.

XXVI. God commands the gourd again, just as He did the whale, by nodding clearly and merely willing it. It springs up immediately, handsome and ^D beautiful in bloom, and immediately covered his entire tabernacle, like [a grove]

casting a most heavy shade. The prophet is pleased beyond measure at this, and truly exults as if over some great and highly desirable deed. Consider, then, from this also, the turn of his mind, which is inclined toward simplicity. He was grieved with a great grief that the things he had prophesied had not come to pass for him, but he rejoiced again with a great joy over a mere vegetable and herb.

A mind that is innocent is very easily moved toward both griefs and joys. You will recognize the truth of this statement if you look at the habits of infants, who frequently grieve without cause and weep profusely over trifling matters; on the other hand, they are sometimes soothed and made glad by a small thing, and suddenly leap from sadness to joy, and are again charmed by some small thing. For just as in human bodies, which are not accustomed to being firm and robust, they fall easily from some impulse, even if it happens not powerfully, but as if by the touch of a softer hand: so too the mind that is devoid of guile does not yield with difficulty to those things which are able to drive it in any direction or to afflict it with trouble. ^B

VERS. 7, 8. And God commanded a morning worm on the morrow, and it struck the gourd, and it withered. And it happened when the sun rose, that the Lord God commanded a spirit of burning heat, and the sun struck upon the head of Jonah. And he was distressed, and he despaired of his own soul, and said: It is good for me to die rather than to live.

XXVII. He calls the caterpillar a "morning worm," because it begins to be generated from the dew falling under the dawn. God commands it, as well as the heat, in the same way that He can be understood to have commanded the gourd itself, and the whale. It, indeed, withered unexpectedly; but the heat strikes him vehemently, and beats upon the uncertain and sorrowful mind with fervent rays, finding him stripped of shade: and a very great addition is made to his sorrow. So, at last, his spirit sinks, so that he desires even death itself with all his prayers. ^C

VERS. 9. And the Lord said to Jonah: Art thou very much grieved for the gourd? And he said: I am very much grieved, even unto death.

XXVIII. Behold again the God of all, out of immense kindness, playing, as it were, with the guileless souls of the saints, and yielding nothing to the love of fathers, which they have toward their children in a way that is unique. For the gourd covers the prophet. He rejoices miraculously because of it. Afterward, the caterpillar, by God’s direction, lays an ambush; the heat strikes, and shows that the shade was most useful and necessary for his relief, so that he might grieve the more, having been deprived of the best of things. Then, being so greatly grieved over a small matter—I mean the gourd—he might no longer accuse the divine kindness, if it chose to grant mercy and gentleness to the most illustrious cities, filled with an innumerable multitude of inhabitants. He asks, therefore, with cleverness, if he is greatly grieved, and that over a vegetable. He confesses it; and this response henceforth becomes for the kind God the subject of a defense.

VERS. 10, 11. And the Lord said: Thou hast spared ^D for the

vegetable, for which thou hast not labored, neither didst thou nourish it, which was born under the night, and perished under the night; and shall I not spare Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than twelve myriades of men, who did not know their right hand or their left, and many cattle?

^B XXIX. O incomparable and incomprehensible clemency! What discourse shall suffice for us for praise? Or with what mouth opened shall we offer songs of thanksgiving to the kind and good God? "For He removes our iniquities from us," and what follows. See, I pray, how He demonstrates that Jonah was grieving at a foreign time and without cause, when he ought, as was holy and fitting, to applaud and follow with joyful acclamation the fact of the Lord. For if you are saddened, He says, or rather are consumed with extreme grief because the plant of the gourd has withered for you, which was born in one night, and perished in one night in the same way, how should I not have regard for so populous a city, in which are reckoned more than twelve myriades of men who have not, from their time and age, been given the ability to discern which is their right hand and which is their left? For these things are in a way indistinguishable to those who are still infants, to whom it was relevant—and before all others—to bestow philanthropy, since they have sinned in nothing. For what is it? One who does not yet know his own hands, by what sins could he be held fast? But because He even names the cattle, and deems them worthy of sparing, this too proceeds from great goodness. For if a just man pities the souls of his own cattle, and this serves to his praise, what is the wonder if God Himself, the God of all things, grants sparing and mercies to them also?

^C Thus indeed Christ saved all, giving Himself as a ransom for small and great, wise and unwise, rich and poor, Jew and Greek; wherefore we may also rightly say: "Thou shalt save men and beasts, O Lord, as Thou hast multiplied Thy mercy, O God. But the children of men shall hope in the shelter of Thy wings."