IV. JONAH’S DISCONTENT AND CORRECTION. (1) BUT IT DISPLEASED JONAH. — The Hebrew (_it was evil to_) is stronger. The prophet was vexed and irritated. HE WAS VERY ANGRY. — Literally, _it_ (anger) _burnt to him._ David’s feeling at the death of Uzziah (2 Samuel 6:8; 1 Chronicles 13:11) is described... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE, I BESEECH THEE. — We naturally refer to the history of Elijah for a similar weariness and disgust of life. (Comp. also the case of Moses, Numbers 11:15). It should be noticed, as a contrast of Hebrew with heathen feeling, that none of these men in their loathing of life contemplated the possib... [ Continue Reading ]
DOEST THOU WELL?... — This rendering may be supported by Deuteronomy 5:28; Jeremiah 1:12, and agrees better with the context than the marginal translation, which follows the LXX., and is undoubtedly a very likely rendering of the Hebrew idiom if taken by itself. Jonah apparently gave his own interpr... [ Continue Reading ]
SO JONAH WENT OUT. — The explanation given in the preceding note avoids the necessity of giving the verb in this clause a pluperfect force, which else would be necessary to account for the prophet’s continued expectation of the destruction of Nineveh after his irritation at the Divine clemency towar... [ Continue Reading ]
PREPARED. — See Note, Jonah 1:17. A GOURD. — So the LXX. render the Hebrew _qiqaion,_ which, since the time of Jerome, has been usually identified with the Arabic _el keroa,_ the castor-oil tree (_Ricinus communis,_ or _Palma Christi_; see margin). It is a large shrub, having large palmate leaves, w... [ Continue Reading ]
A WORM. — Possibly to be taken collectively, as in Isaiah 14:11, for a swarm of caterpillars.... [ Continue Reading ]
VEHEMENT EAST WIND. — The derivation from a root meaning _silent_ (see margin) points to what travellers describe as the “quiet kind of sirocco,” which is often more overpowering than the more boisterous kind. (See Thomson, _The Land and the_ ‘_Book,_ pp. 536, 537.) Ewald, however, derives different... [ Continue Reading ]
DOEST THOU WELL...? — See Note to Jonah 4:4. Jonah was really hurt at the loss of his shade, not sorry for the destruction of the gourd. But it is very true to nature that the moment a worthier excuse is suggested, he accepts it, without perceiving that by so doing he prepared the way for his own co... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH CAME UP. — The original is one of those forcible idioms impossible to reproduce, _which son of a night was, and son of a night perished. _... [ Continue Reading ]
MORE THAN... — This number of infants, 120,000, according to the usual reckoning, gives a population of 600,000. AND ALSO MUCH CATTLE. — This, which at first reads like an anti-climax, is really, perhaps, the most striking thing in the whole of this marvellous book. Already the idea that a sympathy... [ Continue Reading ]