Questions on Jonah
1. Who built the city of Nineveh? Answer
2. What was the name of the port city where Jonah caught a ship to flee from God? Answer
3. What did the seamen on the ship Jonah was on use to determine he was the cause of the storms they were experiencing? Answer
4. What happened after the prophet was thrown overboard from the ship he was on? Answer
5. What was the short eight-word phrase used to warn Nineveh? Answer
6. How did the people of Nineveh show that they took God's warning seriously? Answer
7. How did Jonah's appearance draw attention to his message? Answer
8. Which of the other Minor Prophets discussed Nineveh? Answer
9. How huge was Nineveh? Answer
10. Is Jonah mentioned in any other Old Testament book other than the one he wrote? Answer
11. What fact of Jonah's life contradicts a major argument made by the first century A.D. Pharisees? Answer
12. Why did Jonah run from God? Why was he angry after Nineveh was spared? Answer
13. How does the book of Jonah end? Answer
14. How is Jonah linked to Jesus Christ? Answer
Answers on Jonah
1. The city of Nineveh was built by Nimrod, the "mighty hunter" who opposed God (Genesis 10:8 - 9).
2. Joppa (Jonah 1:3).
[Map of Where Joppa Was Located]
3. The ancient tradition of casting of lots was used to determine that it was Jonah who caused the "evil" to come upon the ship (Jonah 1:7).
4. The sea Jonah's ship was on became calm when he was thrown into it (Jonah 1:15).
5. Jonah used the phrase, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" in order to warn the city (Jonah 3:4).
6. Those in Nineveh, after they heard Jonah's warning, fasted and put on sackcloth. The wearing of sackcloth was a visible sign of mourning. The king even commanding that the animals fast and wear sackcloth, just like he was doing!
[List of Animals in the Bible!]
So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes . . .
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth . . . (Jonah 3:5 - 7, KJV).
7. Jonah was in the belly of a fish (likely a whale) for 72 hours. The animal's gastric juices, used to break down food, would have dramatically changed his skin, face and even his hair! His appearance, along with any eye-witness accounts of him being vomited out of a fish, would have certainly caused him to be taken seriously!
8. The writings of Nahum (Nahum 1:1) and Zephaniah (Zephaniah 2:13) also discuss Nineveh in their writings.
9. God stated the following regarding the size of Nineveh.
And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons (120,000) that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand . . .? (Jonah 4:11, KJV).
The city was so huge that it would take a person three days to walk from end of end within it (Jonah 3:3)!
Nineveh, though large in 798 B.C., would grow even bigger. From 668 to 612 B.C. it was the largest city in the ancient world (Largest Cities in the World by Matt Rosenberg).
10. Jonah is mentioned in 2Kings.
He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher (2Kings 14:25, KJV).
The prophet was mentioned during the reign of Israel's (the northern ten tribes) Jeroboam II from 793 to 753 B.C. This Jeroboam was the longest ruling monarch of any of Israel's kings.
11. The city of Gath-hepher, where Jonah lived, was in a region that would eventually be labeled as Galilee. When Nicodemus tried to defend Jesus before the Pharisees, who wanted to arrest him, they responded with the following.
Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?
They (Pharisees) answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet (John 7:50 - 53, KJV).
The Pharisees' claim that no prophet had, or would, arise out of Galilee simply wasn't true! Jonah had lived where Galilee was located. It is also possible that the minor prophets Nahum and Malachi also lived in this area disparaged by the Jewish religious leaders.
12. The prophet admitted to God that he fled from him because he knew the Lord would ultimately be merciful to Nineveh!
And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil (Jonah 4:2, KJV).
Jonah understood how powerful was the Assyrian Empire, as it had forced Israel's King Jehu (841 to 814 B.C.), years earlier, to pay it tribute money (The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, pages 103 - 104). He wanted the Assyrians, who threatened Israel's existence, to be punished no matter what they did.
13. The Lord uses a gourd to teach Jonah a lesson about mercy. After the plant shields the prophet from the sun, and it dies, he complains about its death. God's tries to reason with Jonah by asking a question that ends the book without recording what response, if any, was given.
Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? (Jonah 4:10 - 11, KJV).
14. The Jews, during Jesus' ministry, demanded a sign to prove He was the promised Messiah. His answer to the self-righteous religious leaders was stark and to the point.
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas (Jonah):
For as Jonas (Jonah) was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:39 - 40, KJV).
The Lord then proclaimed that those in Nineveh will rise in the resurrection of the dead to condemn those who refused to repent when they heard Jesus.
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas (Jonah); and, behold, a greater than Jonas (Jonah) is here (Matthew 12:41, KJV).