JONAH 4:2

n this verse, we have Jonah's “prayer” to God in which he explains why he had fled in the first place. It was because he knew that God in His graciousness might relent from destroying Nineveh. “By including in the story Jonah's admission...the narrator effectively silences all speculation about Jonah's motives.” (D. Stuart)

But Stuart is not exactly correct since a commentator like Phillip Cary can still proclaim that Jonah's words to God did not represent the whole truth of the matter. His contention is that Jonah may indeed have been angry at the Ninevites and wanted them to suffer, but more importantly Jonah was mad at God himself to the point that he had “to lie to God, accuse him, and justify himself, all at the same time.”

As part of this explanation, Jonah echoes a traditional Jewish confessional statement when he says, “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” (Jonah 4:2 NRSV)

This confession actually first appears when Moses is on Mt. Sinai to replace the tablets of the commandments that had been shattered. And, interestingly, it occurs not as Moses' words, but as a self-description uttered by God Himself. (Exodus 34:6-7) It is echoed elsewhere in the Pentateuch at Numbers 14:18 and Deuteronomy 7:10.

Schnittjer notes, “The colorful, ironic, satirical account turns around many of the central theological themes from Exodus. Some other specific allusions to Exodus in Jonah 4:2-3 include the phrases “Isn't this what I said?” and “it is better for me to die,” echoing Exodus 14:12.

David in Psalm 86 personalizes these same words in his prayer of petition to God (vv. 5, 13, 15). He has the insight to realize that God's self-description applies not only to nations as a whole, but also to each individual believer. This great description of God also appears in Psalm 103:8-11 and Psalm 145:8 as part of these hymns of praise and encouragement to the people of Israel.

We also encounter these words in Scripture is in Nehemiah 9:17. But on that occasion, it is Ezra who speaks them as he prays to God in the hearing of the returnees from the Exile who have just finished confessing their sins. Ezra quotes God's words back to Him in thanking Him for being so gracious and forgiving to the sinful nation and allowing them to come back to their land at last

Joel 2:13 contains the same classic confession, this time in the context of a plague of locust which has overwhelmed Israel as punishment for their sins. The prophet exhorts the people to repent so that the worst of the disaster can be averted. His reasoning in v. 14 may sound familiar to you: “Who knows whether He will not turn and relent?” Those are practically the identical words spoken by the king of Nineveh in Jonah 3:9 – “Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” As Schnittjer says, “The gentile king's insightful question, 'Who knows?' opens the way for Joel to offer the same hope to Zion at a time of terrible threat. Interpretive advances sometimes come from unlikely exegetes like the king of Nineveh.”

As to which prophet is quoting from which, controversy remains. Watts feels that it is Jonah who is echoing Joel.” Schnittjer obviously states that Joel is quoting from Jonah, and D. Stuart concludes that both Jonah and Joel “could have drawn upon a common source for their similar wordings.”

In support of the contention that Joel came first, J.A. Cook takes the reversed order “gracious and compassionate” vis-a-vis Exodus 4:6-7 as a late Aramaism. But Schnittjer more correctly notes, “The inversion of 'compassionate and gracious' exhibits an ancient scribal technique for marking quotations known as Seidel's theory, further strengthening evidence of intentional relationship [between Jonah and Exodus].” Such inversions even occur within the book of Deuteronomy, demonstrating their ancient pedigree as an early literary technique.

Finally, we come full circle in the book of Nahum, directed again to Nineveh in 612 B.C. At this much later date, the city is now the capital of the wicked Assyrian Empire, and Nahum either predicts or describes the fall of Nineveh. Again, we see a prophet quoting from Exodus 34:6-7, but this time appropriately also including the last part of that passage which states that God “by no means clears the guilty.” As Boda points out, “The message of repentance disappears in the second phase of the Book of the Twelve [i.e. The Minor Prophets], signaled by the reflection on the revelation of Yahweh from Exodus 34:6-7 at the outset of the book of Nahum...Nahum declares an irreversible announcement of judgment upon Nineveh.”

There is yet one more reference in the OT to Exodus 34:6-7 in the Minor Prophets. That is found in Micah 7:18-19. In this context, the prophet only quotes from the positive aspect of God's actions towards mankind, His forgiveness. And this time it appears in a passage of praise directed toward God directly. Mobley notes that verse 6, appearing near the end of the book, begins with the words, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity..?” This is a possible reference to the meaning of the prophet's name found in Micah 1:1 – “Who is like Yahweh?” It thus serves as a means for book-ending the whole prophecy.

Redditt concludes from the above string of references that it is “one of the most important examples of quotations in the prophets...Each text gives the quotation the text's own particular emphasis, but the use of the confession of faith at least forms a theme within the Book of the Twelve.

Concluding with a revisiting of Jonah 4:2, it stands alongside Satan's quotations from Scripture during Christ's temptation in the wilderness as prime demonstrations of the fact that memorizing and quoting Bible passages accurately will not suffice if you are doing it for entirely the wrong motives or without a true understanding of the full implications of the passage for your own life.