Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin (continued)
Jonah 1
Jonah 1:1-2
1. Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
1. Et fuit sermo Jehovae ad Ionam, filium Amittai, dicendo,
2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
2. Surge, vade Niniveh, ad urbem magnam, et clama contra eam; quia ascendit malitia eorum coram facie mea.
As I have before observed, Jonah seems here indirectly to intimate, 85 that he had been previously called to the ofÏce of a teacher; for it is the same as though he had said, that he framed this history as a part of his ordinary function. The word of God then was not for the first time communicated to Jonah, when he was sent to Nineveh; but it pleased God, when he was already a Prophet, to employ him among other nations. It might have been then, that he was sent to Nineveh, that the Lord, being wearied with the obstinacy of his own people, might afford an example of pious docility on the part of a heathen and uncircumcised nation, in order to render the Israelites more inexcusable. They made a profession of true religion, they boasted that they were a holy people; circumcision was also to them a symbol and a pledge of God's covenant; yet they despised all the Prophets, so that their teaching among them was wholly useless. It is then probable that this Prophet was taken away from them, that the Ninevites by their example might increase the sin of Israel, for in 85Calvin lays no great stress on the circumstance of the Book commencing with a {,{וbut states what he thinks as its probable import. The fact that other Books, such as Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, Ezekiel, and other books, begin thus, is no proof that the copulative here does not intimate what is here stated. Marckius and Cocceius think that it imports a connection between the different Books of Scripture; and if so, why may it not intimate a connection between this Book and the former Prophecy of Jonah? Junius and Tremelius render the {`` }וwhen,'' and connect it with ``then'' at the beginning of the third verse; and it may be so construed at the beginning of most of the other Books. Adopting this rendering, we may translate thus, --- 1. When the word of Jehovah came to Johah, the son of Amittai, saying 2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against her, for there wickedness has ascended before me. 3. Then Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish, from the presence of Jehovah, and went down to Joppa,'' etc. This reads connected, and the passage admits of this construction, for the copulative {}וin Hebrew, when repeated, may very frequently be thus rendered, the first by ``when,'' and the second by ``then.'' --- Ed.