John Calvin Commentary Jonah 1:17

"And Jehovah prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." — Jonah 1:17 (ASV)

What the Prophet here briefly relates should be carefully weighed by us.

It is easily passed over when we read in a few words that Jonah was swallowed up by a fish and that he was there three days and three nights.

But though Jonah neither elaborated nor illustrated rhetorically what is overlooked by us, nor adopted any display of words, but spoke of the event as if it were an ordinary thing, we still see what the event itself really was: Jonah was cast into the sea.

He had previously been not only a worshipper of the true God, but also a Prophet, and had no doubt faithfully discharged his office; for God would not have resolved to send him to Nineveh if He had not conferred on him suitable gifts, and He knew him to be qualified for undertaking a burden so great and so important.

Since Jonah then had faithfully endeavored to serve God and to devote himself to Him throughout his past life, consider his current situation: he is cast into the sea as one unworthy of the common light and cut off from human society.

He seems unworthy of undergoing a common or an ordinary punishment. Instead, he is exiled, as it were, from the world, deprived of light and air—a punishment formerly allotted, as is well-known, to parricides.

When Jonah saw that he was dealt with in this way, what must have been the state of his mind?

Now that he tells us that he was three whole days in the belly of the fish, it is certain that the Lord had so awakened him that he must have endured continual uneasiness.

He was asleep before he was swallowed by the fish; but the Lord drew him, as it were, by force to His tribunal, and he must have suffered a continual execution.

He must have constantly entertained thoughts like these: “Why does God now deal with you in this way? God does not indeed kill you at once, but intends to expose you to innumerable deaths.”

We see what Job says: that when he died he would be at rest and free from all evils (Job 14:6).

Jonah, no doubt, was continually consumed with grief because he knew that God was opposed to and displeased with him. He doubtless said to himself, “You have to deal not with men, but with God Himself, who now pursues you because you have become a fugitive from His presence.”

Since Jonah must have necessarily thought in this way about God’s wrath, his case must have been harder than a hundred deaths, similar to the experience of Job and many others whose chief petition was that they might die.

Now, as he was not slain but languished in continual torments, it is certain that none of us can comprehend, much less convey in words, what must have come into the mind of Jonah during these three days.

But I cannot now discuss what remains; I must therefore defer it to the next lecture.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You set before us this day Your holy Prophet as an awful example of Your wrath against all who are rebellious and disobedient to You—O grant, that we may learn so to subject all our thoughts and affections to Your word, that we may not reject anything that pleases You, but so learn both to live and to die to You, that we may ever regard Your will, and undertake nothing but what You have testified is approved by You, so that we may fight under Your banners, and through life obey Your word, until at length we reach that blessed rest which has been obtained for us by the blood of Your only begotten Son, and is reserved for us in heaven through the hope of His Gospel. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

In yesterday’s lecture, we began to explain the last verse of the first chapter (Jonah 1:17), in which Jonah said that a fish was prepared by the Lord.

We stated that it was inevitable that Jonah, when he was in the belly of the fish, must have felt the most grievous agonies, as if he had been condemned to perpetual death, as long as he was deprived of the enjoyment of God’s favor. This fact will be further explained when we consider his song.

But now there is a question to be considered, and that is whether God created a fish to receive Jonah.

The expression, that God prepared a fish, seems indeed to mean this; for if the fish had already been swimming in the sea, the Prophet might have adopted another mode of speaking and said that the Lord caused the fish to meet him or that God had sent a fish, for so the Scripture usually speaks; but a fish is said to have been prepared.

This doubt may be resolved as follows: though God may not have created the fish at that moment, He had still prepared it for this purpose.

For we know that it was not according to the course of nature that the fish swallowed Jonah, nor that he (Jonah) was preserved uninjured in his body for three days and three nights.

I therefore refer what is said here, that a fish was prepared, to the preservation of Jonah. For it is certain that there are some fish that can swallow men whole and entire.

And William Rondelet, who has written a book on sea fishes, concludes that in all probability it must have been the Lamia. He himself saw that fish and says that it has a belly so large and a mouth so wide that it can easily swallow a man. He also says that a man in armor has sometimes been found in the inside of the Lamia.

Therefore, as I have said, either a whale, or a Lamia, or a fish unknown to us, may be able to swallow a man whole and entire. But one who is devoured in this way cannot live inside a fish.

Thus, Jonah, so that he might identify it as a miracle, says that the fish was prepared by the Lord. For he was received into the inside of the fish as if it were into a hospital. And though he had no rest there, yet he was as safe in his body as if he were walking on land.

Since then the Lord, contrary to the order of nature, preserved His Prophet there, it is no wonder that he says that the fish was prepared by the Lord.

I come now to the second chapter.