Wisdom Tale | Jonah and the Big Fish
- Tanya Webster
- Aug 10, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 22
The story of Jonah in the Old Testament teaches us the importance of repentance and forgiveness. Below are a few different versions of the tale.
Judaism: Original Hebrew text in the Torah
Christianity: Text in the Old Testament (NSRV)
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by the Rabbi Brian Zachary Meyer
"Jonah was the son of Mr. & Mrs. Amittai. His name means “dove.” We know nothing about his lineage — he was not related to any king or prophets. He was just a regular Joe. (Bad pun intended.) At some indeterminate age, Jonah gets a call from God. God says, “Jonah, there’s something I want you to do in a city to the east.” Jonah gets on a boat going west. Jonah goes below deck and goes to sleep.
Jonah awakes in the middle of a huge storm that threatens the ship. Jonah knows that he has endangered the lives of the other passengers, so he jumps into the water, calming the sea. The big fish swallows him whole. Jonah spends days in the fish contemplating his life. It is there, in the dark depths, that he says one of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible. After he has lost all hope, he says I was deader than dead until I remembered you, God.
God talks to the fish and the fish delivers Jonah to Nineveh — a city as populated as New Delhi. Nineveh is where Jonah was told to go in the first place. Jonah walks for three days to the center of town and declares, “Hey, listen up! You all are not living the way you are supposed to be living — if only according to your own conscience.” The inhabitants of Nineveh declare a fast — they mourn their loss of idealism as though it were a lost loved one. They grieve for their own mortality. They weep for all not living the simple, joyful lives they knew they should be living. They cry for reasons hidden, but present deep in their hearts.
The King of Nineveh, when he hears of what his people are doing, joins in their fast and their mourning. And — in what must have been perceived as a bit of biblical humor — the people of Nineveh even dress their cattle in mourning clothes."
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