Jonah, Chapter 1
1 Jonah, sent to Nineveh, fleeth to Tarshish, 4 He is bewrayed by a tempest, 11 thrown into the sea, 17 and swallowed by a fish2 Jonah's prayer and deliverance.
2:10 Spake - Though fishes understand not as man, yet they have ears to hear their Creator.
Luke, Chapter 10, verses 25-37
25 magnifieth the happy estate of his Church; teacheth the lawyer how to attain eternal life, and to take everyone for his neighbour that needeth his mercy10
10:27 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God - That is, thou shalt unite all the faculties of thy soul to render him the most intelligent and sincere, the most affectionate and resolute service. We may safely rest in this general sense of these important words, if we are not able to fix the particular meaning of every single word. If we desire to do this, perhaps the heart, which is a general expression, may be explained by the three following, With all thy soul, with the warmest affection, with all thy strength, the most vigorous efforts of thy will, and with all thy mind or understanding, in the most wise and reasonable manner thou canst; thy understanding guiding thy will and affections. Deu 6:5; Lev 19:18.
10:28 Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live - Here is no irony, but a deep and weighty truth. He, and he alone, shall live for ever, who thus loves God and his neighbour in the present life.
10:29 To justify himself - That is, to show he had done this. Lev 18:5.
10:30 From Jerusalem to Jericho - The road from Jerusalem to Jericho (about eighteen miles from it) lay through desert and rockyplaces: so many robberies and murders were committed therein, that it was called the bloody way. Jericho was situated in the valley: hence the phrase of going down to it. About twelve thousand priests and Levites dwelt there, who all attended the service of the temple.
10:31 The common translation is, by chance - Which is full of gross improprieties. For if we speak strictly, there is no such thing in the universe as either chance or fortune. A certain priest came down that way, and passed by on the other side - And both he and the Levite no doubt could find an excuse for passing over on the other side, and might perhaps gravely thank God for their own deliverance, while they left their brother bleeding to death. Is it not an emblem of many living characters, perhaps of some who bear the sacred office? O house of Levi and of Aaron, is not the day coming, when the virtues of heathens and Samaritans will rise up in judgment against you?
10:33 But a certain Samaritan came where he was - It was admirably well judged to represent the distress on the side of the Jew, and the mercy on that of the Samaritan. For the case being thus proposed, self interest would make the very scribe sensible, how amiable such a conduct was, and would lay him open to our Lord's inference. Had it been put the other way, prejudice might more easily have interposed, before the heart could have been affected.
10:34 Pouring in oil and wine - Which when well beaten together are one of the best balsams that can be applied to a fresh wound.
10:36 Which of these was the neighbour to him that fell among the robbers - Which acted the part of a neighbour?
10:37 And he said, He that showed mercy on him - He could not for shame say otherwise, though he thereby condemned himself and overthrew his own false notion of the neighbour to whom our love is due. Go and do thou in like manner - Let us go and do likewise, regarding every man as our neighbour who needs our assistance.Let us renounce that bigotry and party zeal which would contract our hearts into an insensibility for all the human race, but a small number whose sentiments and practices are so much our own, that our love to them is but self love reflected. With an honest openness of mind let us always remember that kindred between man and man, and cultivate that happy instinct whereby, in the original constitution of our nature, God has strongly bound us to each other.
1 Jonah disobeys the command of God, Jon 1:1-3.
Is arrested by a storm, Jon 1:4-6.
Discovered to be the cause of the storm, Jon 1:7-10.
Cast into the sea and swallowed by a fish, Jon 1:11-17.
1:2 That great city - It is said to have been one hundred and fifty furlongs in length, that is eighteen miles and three quarters, and eleven miles and one quarter in breadth.
1:3 From the presence - From the place where God usually had shewed himself present, by revealing his word and will to his prophets.Perhaps he might think God would not put him upon this work, when he was got into a strange country.
1:5 Into the sides - ln some cabin or other, whither he went before the storm arose.
1:6 Will think upon us - With pity and favour.
1:7 Cast lots - "Lots are an appeal to heaven in doubtful cases, and therefore not to be used but where the matter is undeterminable in any other way."
1:8 Tell us - What hast thou done, for which God is so angry with thee, and with us for thy sake?
1:9 I fear - I worship and serve the true God; the eternal and almighty God, who made and ruleth the heavens.
1:13 Rowed hard - They were willing to be at any labour to save him.
1:14 Unto the Lord - Now they all cry to Jonah's God, to Jehovah. And said - Let us not perish for taking away his life.Hast done - Sending the tempest, arresting the prophet by it, detecting him by lot, sentencing him by his own mouth, and confirming the condemning sentence by the continuance of the storm.
1:16 Feared the Lord - Perhaps as Jonah's casting over - board was a type of Christ's death, so the effect it had upon the mariners might be a type of the conversion of the Heathen from idols unto God.Made vows - Probably they vowed, they would ever worship him whom Jonah preached, the Creator of heaven and earth.
1:17 A great fish - The Hebrew word is, numbered, has appointed him for Jonah's receiver and deliverer. God has the command of all his creatures, and can make any of them serve his designs of mercy to his people.