Font Size
Jonah 1:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Jonah 1:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Recalcitrant Prophet[a]
Chapter 1
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: 2 “Go immediately to the great city of Nineveh and denounce it, for their wickedness has revealed itself to me.” 3 But Jonah decided to run away from the Lord and flee to Tarshish.[b] He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship that was about to sail to Tarshish. He paid his fare and boarded the ship to journey with the sailors to Tarshish, and away from the presence of the Lord.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Jonah 1:1 The story of the whale resembles stories told among all the coastal peoples of the Mediterranean basin. It serves simply to end the whole episode, in the atmosphere of the marvelous, that pervades the entire account. Jesus will use Jonah’s experience with the whale as an image of his own burial and resurrection (see Mt 12:39-40; Lk 11:29-30).
- Jonah 1:3 Tarshish: perhaps Tartessos in Spain, a seaport that marked the outer limits of communication. Joppa: the Mediterranean port for Jerusalem.
