translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JON

label: NET study note

text: Nineveh was the last capital city of ancient Assyria. Occupying about 1800 acres, it was located on the east bank of the Tigris River across from the modern city of Mosul, Iraq. The site includes two tels, Nebi Yunus and Kouyunjik, which have been excavated on several occasions. See A. H. Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains ; R. C. Thompson and R. W. Hutchinson, A Century of Exploration at Nineveh ; G. Waterfield, Layard of Nineveh . Preliminary reports of limited excavations in 1987 and 1989 appear in Mar Sóipri 1:2 (1988): 1-2; 2:2 (1989): 1-2; 4:1 (1991): 1-3. Also see D. J. Wiseman, “Jonah’s Nineveh,” TynBul 30 (1979): 29-51.


text: The term wickedness is personified here; it is pictured as ascending heavenward into the very presence of God. This figuratively depicts how God became aware of their evil – it had ascended into heaven right into his presence.


text: The English word lots is a generic term. In some cultures the procedure for “casting lots” is to “draw straws” so that the person who receives the short straw is chosen. In other situations a colored stone or a designated playing card might be picked at random. In Jonah’s case, small stones were probably used.


text: In the ancient Near East, casting lots was a custom used to try to receive a revelation from the gods about a particular situation. The Phoenician sailors here cried out to their gods and cast lots in the hope that one of their gods might reveal the identity of the person with whom he was angry. CEV has well captured the sentiment of v.7b: “‘Let’s ask our gods to show us who caused all this trouble.’ It turned out to be Jonah.”


text: The first two times that Jonah is said to be running away from the Lord ( 1:3 ), Hebrew word order puts this phrase last. Now in the third occurrence ( 1:10 ), it comes emphatically before the verb that describes Jonah’s action. The sailors were even more afraid once they had heard who it was that Jonah had offended.


text: The word translated row is used in Ezekiel to describe digging through a wall ( Ezek 8:8; 12:5, 7, 12 ). Its use in Jonah pictures the sailors digging into the water with their oars as hard as they could.


text: The word for land here is associated with a Hebrew verb meaning “to be dry” and is the same noun used in v. 9 of dry ground in contrast with the sea, both made by the Lord (see also Gen 1:9-10 ; Exod 4:9; 14:16, 22, 29 ; Jonah 2:10 ).


text: Beginning with 1:17 , the verse numbers through 2:10 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text ( BHS ), with 1:17 ET = 2:1 HT, 2:1 ET = 2:2 HT, etc., through 2:10 ET = 2:11 HT.